Sages Displaced
by NostalgicWithLove
Summary: Tsunade sends Naruto and some of his comrades to investigate some odd occurrences near the border. They find an injured woman with a confusing past, and more questions then answers. Could this be the start to a another war? Post-war setting, multiple POVs, some of them OC-centric. Partial self-insert. Pairings to come, only NaruHina confirmed. May have manga spoilers. Please R&R!
1. Chapter 1 - The Mission

(A/N) Hello everyone! Welcome to the start of my first fanfic. I apologize in advance if there are any spelling or grammar errors. Because I'm new around here and at writing fanfiction, I lack a beta-reader. Regardless, I hope you enjoy my work. Please review, I'd be happy to have constructive feedback.

Background: Post-war approx. 2 years, canon. Partial self-insert, some parts OCs POV. Only confirmed pairing NaruHina and_ possibly_ Sasusaku, but others may come up later.

Rated "T" - violence, mild language, mild sexiness. Rating unlikely to change at this time!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Naruto belongs to Kishimoto Masashi. This is only for fun/enjoyment, I do not make and never will make any profit from this!

Update: The first three chapters have been slightly revised for a couple errors and hey look! A real cover page! Also, A HUGE thanks to the two people who faved this, and the two that reviewed. It means a lot to me! Still _possibly_ looking for a beta. Anyway, please enjoy! Cheers!

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Chapter 1 – The Mission

Rynn woke with a start, feeling wetness at her nose. Lightly touching her fingers to her face, she let out a small gasp upon noticing they were stained with blood. She stumbled through a dark and cluttered bedroom fearing the worse. Rynn could count on one hand the amount of times she had ever had a nosebleed; the rarity of the situation made her heart thump with mild panic. Still drowsy from sleep, she flicked on the bathroom light and shuffled in to face the mirror.

She breathed a sigh of relief. Yes, it was true, her nose was bleeding but it looked like it was already stopping. Grabbing a tissue, Rynn wiped up the small rivulet of blood escaping her left nostril and relaxed as no new blood took the place of the old.

Speculating that her nose ring had just stabbed her accidently while she was asleep, she returned to the bedroom, stumbling more then on the way out due to the way her eye's had adjusted to the bright lights of the bathroom. Flopping back into the covers, she smiled and cuddled up with to the sleeping form of her live-in boyfriend. Life is pretty good, she thought, as she drifted back to sleep.

* * *

A solitary figure blurred orange as it bounced from rooftop to rooftop, travelling haphazardly toward the centre of Konoha. The figure landed unevenly on a terracotta tile and a group of pigeons took flight, startled by the sudden movement and accompanying yelp. Steadying himself, the young man with unruly blonde hair jumped away. Naruto hollered "sorry!" over his shoulder at the disgruntled birds, grinning slightly despite the momentary setback.

Naruto was eager to be on an A- rank mission for the first time in months, and in his excitement he was speeding toward the Hokage's office faster than was usual even for him. He had been taking advantage of the early summer warmth by practicing on the training grounds, and it was there that he had received a homing bird with a message to head the Hokage's office to be briefed on a mission. He wasn't sure what the mission would entail yet, but typically people didn't send messenger birds unless it was above B-rank. It had to be urgent.

It wasn't that Naruto didn't appreciate the post-war peace, it was just the opposite. But there are only so many times that a skilled shinobi team can escort dignitaries before things get a little repetitive. Naruto had been on so many C rank missions the previous winter that he was itching to have some sort of real challenge.

Slowing to a walk as he headed into Tsunade's office, he was shocked to see the fifth Hokage's expression to be so grave. "What's up with the scary face Granny Tsunade?" he asked with his arms behind his head in his characteristic laid back fashion. That's when he noticed the others standing in the office. "Sakura? Kiba? Oh! Hey Hinata!"

He grinned at the quiet Hyuga. They had been spending more time together since the war had ended, but things between the two had not been progressing quickly, in part due to Naruto's imperceptiveness, and Hinata's shyness.

"H…Hi Naruto!" she said, blushing slightly as she smiled at him.

Sakura rolled her eyes at her former teammate. "Honestly Naruto, show the Hokage some respect! And buy some new clothes!" She tugged at the bottom of Naruto's black and orange jacket, which had ridden up to show a couple inches of skin between the jacket and the matching pants. "You've clearly outgrown these!"

Naruto returned his arms to his sides and the jacket came down to meet the pants. "I guess these have gotten a little tight…"

Kiba smirked. "I know someone here probably doesn't mind," he teased, elbowing Hinata.

"Kiba! That's n-not…I didn't…I…I wasn't looking," Hinata finished lamely.

There was a curt knock on the office door and in walked a brown-haired man with wide almond-shaped eyes, distracting the younger ninja from Naruto's shrinking wardrobe. Naruto and Sakura grinned.

"Captain Yamato! You're on duty again?" Naruto asked excitedly. He hadn't seen much his former team captain recently, as the former-ANBU member had spend quite a while at the hospital recovering from his time in captivity.

Yamato smiled. "Sakura gave me the okay to return to normal duty last week."

"Oi, Sakura, you didn't tell me…"

Naruto's words were cut off by a massive slam. Tsunade had heaved a heavy book down on her desk. "Good, you're all here. Now pay attention! I didn't send out messenger birds to watch my underlings have a chat about growth spurts!" Tsunade looked pointedly at Naruto and her star apprentice.

"There have been reports of strange activity near the border. People have been disappearing. There have also been some odd…disturbances."

"Disturbances?" Kiba asked, absentmindedly rubbing Akamaru's head.

"Chunks of earth and destroyed buildings have been appearing seemingly out of nowhere. ANBU teams have found three such areas. We aren't sure who is behind it, but evidence suggests it could be someone using an experimental jutsu."

"Could it be Orochimaru?" Sakura asked tentatively.

The kunoichi sannin's expression soured slightly at the mention of her former teammate. "It very well could be. This is going to be primarily a scouting mission. My ANBU teams have found an area that is fairly centralized to the strange goings on; it could even be an enemy hideout. I want you to try and find out who is behind this! And don't," she glanced to Naruto, "take any unnecessary risks. We have no idea what we are dealing with yet."

The cheerfulness of a few minutes ago had faded from the room. The Fifth looked around at the determined faces that surrounded her. "You have an hour to get packed and ready to head out. Dismissed!"

* * *

A day and a half later, five shinobi forms sped through the dense forest. Kiba was at the front of the group, his keen sense of smell tracking down the scent of the trail left for them by the ANBU team. Hinata trailed close behind him, her Byakugan activated. Their team captain Yamato was directly behind Hinata and the two former members of team seven brought up the rear. There were close to their destination.

Hinata's breath hitched slightly and she signaled for the team to stop. "I see something. I think it might be one of the disturbances the Fifth was talking about!"

The team slowed to a halt, and congregated on the forest floor.

"How far away is it Hinata?" Yamato questioned, "What do you see?"

The heiress peered off into the distance. "It's about half a kilometer away, in a clearing. It's…it's kind of hard to describe. I see a mass of grass and concrete and part of a cream-coloured building. The odd thing is the grass doesn't seem to match. The grass near the concrete is dead and it's too short to match the plants in the clearing. There is something off about the building too. It's designed in a way I've never seen before. It's not even really similar to things from the nations that I've visited."

"Do you see any people?" Sakura asked.

"I don't see anyone. It looks abandoned."

Kiba and Akamaru sniffed the air. "We don't smell anyone within at least two kilos."

Yamato pursed his lips. "Okay. I think this warrants further investigation. We will move up to the area slowly. Kiba, Hinata be on the lookout. You two will scout the area first. Naruto, send a clone with them. When they are sure the area is secure, the clone can inform us and the three of us will meet them."

The blonde nodded and made the appropriate hand sign. With a puff of smoke, a clone popped into existence and followed the former team eight members further toward the clearing. Naruto stretched, showing some midriff again and promptly dropped to the leaf-covered ground, cross legged.

"Bah, you idiot! This isn't a time to be relaxing!" the pink haired kunoichi whispered.

"Shh! Sakura! You'll break my concentration!" He took a deep breath in and let it out slowly, the moment of annoyance slipping from his face.

Something clicked in her mind and she realized what he was doing: collecting the energy for Sage mode. Even after all he had done for the shinobi world, sometimes Naruto's random instances of forethought still surprised her. It was easy to forget how powerful he had become when most of the time he still acted like the goofball teammate she had grown up with: laughing at his own jokes, eating ramen at Ichiraku's at least four times a week and declaring that he'd be hokage one day. Sakura smiled a little at the last thought. There was probably wasn't a soul in Konoha that would laugh at his declarations these days.

Sakura was pulled from her inner reflections by Naruto's sudden movement. He looked up with his eyes surrounded in orange. "Captain Yamato, Sakura! The area seems clear! Let's go!" he declared enthusiastically.

Jumping away, Sakura exchanged an amused glance with her captain as they rushed to keep up with their over-eager teammate. Due to Naruto's quick pace, it only took them a couple minutes to reach the clearing that Hinata had previously described. Slowly, the group made their way to the centre of the clearing.

"This is huge! I hadn't expected something this big!" Sakura looked over the building and the layer of earth beneath it. It looked like half of a house had been deposited in the middle of the forest. "Captain Yamato! Look at this!" She pointed to the cement buried in the earth. "This looks like part of a foundation."

The older shinobi frowned at the sight. "This is only half of the foundation. It looks like it was cut cleanly in two along with the dirt beside it."

"Arf, arf!" a shrill bark alerted the team to a small hole the Inuzuka dog had dug beside the strange mass.

"You're right, Akamaru. This isn't even remotely similar dirt." Kiba looked back to his teammates. Yamato stood near the odd monument with his arms crossed.

"It's obvious that this part of a building was transported from somewhere, but where and more importantly, how? This doesn't look like any sort of summoning that I've ever seen."

Sakura slipped two vials out of her pocket and took samples of each type of earth. "Maybe we should go inside. What do you think Naruto?" She glanced at her friend, "Naruto? What's wrong?"

Naruto was standing several feet away from the orphaned apartment, with a faraway look in his eyes and an odd look on his face. "I'm just sensing something really weird." He swallowed thickly and looked west with unease. "I can't really explain the feeling. It has to do with Sage mode…" he trailed off, his demeanor more serious than usual. With a bright flash, Naruto's orange outfit seemed to burst into flames. Naruto's eyes went wide as he entered Nine-Tails Chakra mode and without warning, he sprinted off in the direction he had been looking to moments before.

"Naruto! Wait for…" Sakura stopped mid-yell. It was too late. He was already too far gone to hear her. "Damnit! That _idiot_, running off like that without warning," she fumed.

Hinata looked with worry in the direction Naruto had gone, and Kiba swore as he beckoned Akamaru.

"Bah! Come on, at least we know his scent well!" Kiba glowered as he began tracking his most unpredictable friend.

* * *

"I can't really explain the feeling. It has to do with Sage mode…"

Naruto couldn't explain the weird feeling he had in his chest and stomach as he approached the displaced building. It almost felt like an outpouring of nature energy, but it didn't _feel _quite the same. He looked toward the source of the weird energy. It felt like it was vibrating in his sternum. '_This needs further investigation,'_ he thought, swallowing heavily as the vibration seemed to grow slightly stronger.

'_Kurama! You got any idea what this vibration is_?'

The nine-tails opened an eye, letting his awareness seep out into his young host.

'**No. It feels similar to nature energy, but the frequency is wrong. It's too low**.'

Naruto's eyebrows came together and he grimaced. '_That vibration is making me feel sick to my stomach_.'

'**Use my chakra to enhance your senses. It may help you deal with the discomfort and give you more insight into what that energy is.**'

'_Good idea!_'

'**Keh. Of course it is!**'

Naruto focused on the kyuubi's chakra and rapidly entered Nine-tails mode. As soon as he did, he was slammed with a massive wave of bloodlust and hatred so strong that it actually stunned him for a moment. It was coming from the direction of the strange vibrations he was feeling. He could tell that the intent to kill was directed at someone, but he wasn't sure who. One thing he knew for sure was that someone on the receiving end of that rage needed some help and quickly. Without even thinking to warn his teammates where he was headed, Naruto sped off in the direction of the bloodlust.

Moving at his top speed, he rapidly approached a lake. Peering off into the distance, he noted there was an island in the middle. The tension was spewing from an area near the sandy, remote landmass. '_I hope I'm not too late_,' he thought worriedly.

As he approached the island, he cursed his lack of forethought. He had no idea who he was going to find when he reached his destination and he realized now that he had just rushed in without any backup. He assumed that his team was probably following him but he wasn't sure how long it would take the group to cover the ground that he had so quickly. He shook his head slightly. It was too late, he was here and he was pretty sure someone needed his help badly. He couldn't stand around and wait for them, by the time they caught up, someone could be killed!

He slowed his pace as he reached the island. At first glance, it was quite unremarkable, but following the strong feeling of hatred, he found a latch hidden in the sand. Pulling up on the latch, sand slid inwards as a passage way opened up. Naruto poked his head inside and found a staircase leading down under the lake. He stepped into the tunnel, leaving the door open behind him so that his teammates would be able to find the door quickly when they caught up to him.

Underneath the lake, the vibrations had gotten so strong that even in Nail-tails mode, it was uncomfortable. He was running down a dank hallway when he heard a shrill scream. '_Damn, maybe I didn't make it in time!_' As suddenly as they had begun, the strange vibrations stopped and right afterwards the bloodlust began increasing. He strove to run even faster through the dark passage. Suddenly, he found that dark hallway had ended and he had raced into the middle of a large open chamber.

He shivered at what he saw around him, his anger growing every second. There were several human bodies in cages, and the floor was covered in blood and grime. A sweep with his chakra told him that none of the caged people had made it. There were however, two live figures in the room. One was a girl pressed up against the back wall, clearly trying to get away from the cloaked figure several feet away from her. Her hair was shoulder length but matted, and her clothes were tattered. The bottom half of her face was caked with dried blood and her eyes were filled with terror. Tears streamed down her face, leaving trails in the dirt.

"YOU!" he bellowed at the standing figure, "Who the hell are you? You're going to pay for this! I won't let you get away with it, you sick bastard!"

The cloaked figure turned to face him. Nothing of the man's face could be seen from underneath the hood of his robe.

"Well, if it isn't our savior, Naruto. I have to say, I'm a little surprised to see you here, and so soon! I didn't expect any sort of intervention at these stages in my plan, no I certainly did not."

Ignoring the strange man's words, Naruto sent out a chakra arm and grabbed the man. Picking him up off the ground, Naruto walked a little closer, using his real hands and a second chakra arm to begin forming a Rasengan.

"I wouldn't try anything hasty, Naruto. This girl could get caught up in things!"

Naruto let the beginnings of the Rasengan dissipate as he noticed that the man had formed his hands into the _Hitsuji _hand seal. He had no idea what type of jutsu this guy could have placed on the women. In theory, she could be killed instantly. Naruto dropped the man and retracted the chakra arms.

Naruto glared at the figure as he stood up and dusted himself off. The man's voice was familiar to him, but he couldn't quite place it. Either way, the cheery politeness was getting to him. He was vibrating with anger but the threat of something happening to innocent woman before him stopped him from attacking outright for a second time. The cloaked man continued chatting, as if they were discussing plans for a future get-together. "I told you I would fight you last time we met, but I'm afraid I'm not quite prepared for it, Naruto! You'll have to wait a little longer!"

Long strands of silver hair flitted out of the cowl as the figure turned to viciously kick the woman on the ground. She cried out and then whimpered before falling silent again. The man sighed. "This one is a failure anyways. Run away, Naruto. You won't be able to save her! If you try…you could die!" The man with the hidden face performed a complex set of hand seals that Naruto had never seen before and shouted "RELEASE!" Waving, the man started to fade out. Naruto tried to grab the man with a chakra arm, but it was too late, he had disappeared completely. A piercing scream turned his attention from his escaped enemy back to the girl. She was staring at her hands, eyes wide with fear. He was beginning to feel the vibration in his sternum again.

"Help me! It's burning, I'm BURNING!" The woman was screaming now, heaving with each breath and shaking. The vibrations were increasing too, streaming out of the woman with enough force to blow his hair backwards. He watched helplessly as emerald green chakra enveloped the woman's hands and steadily moved up her arms she was writhing in pain, screaming for help and that she was on fire. For a moment, Naruto froze, unsure what to do. The vibration was beginning to feel overwhelming again but he needed to find a way to stop that weird chakra before it consumed the woman completely.

_'What's the fastest way to get rid of chakra? Come on Naruto, think!'_

The answer came to him suddenly and he dove toward the woman, horrified to see the greenish flames had covered much of her body. He grabbed on to her wrists, wincing as the green aura burned his flesh. He concentrated on absorbing the energy. The awful vibration rushed into him, and he felt himself get dizzy as the strange energy mixed with his own chakra and that of kyuubi's.

Letting go of the woman's arms, he made the hand seal. "Kage bushin no jutsu!" Hundreds of clones filled the room and the surrounding corridors. Panting, he grabbed the woman's wrists again and started the process over. By the third time, the clones were starting to appear on the island above the hideout and Naruto's hands and arms were burnt and blistered up to his elbows. To his dismay, he hadn't stopped the flames. They had been held at bay, but the woman was still partially engulfed in the green aura. His head hurt and his skull felt like it was vibrating. His vision blurred as he latched onto her burned extremities again. Every bone in his body ached, but he was determined not to let go.

"Naruto!"

He turned his head to see Sakura and the others push through all the clones to get to him and the victim of the green chakra. Yamato and Sakura started doing several complicated hand-seals in unison, but his vision was too blurry from the vibration in his head to make them out clearly.

"Twenty-Four Prong Complete Chakra Seal!" Both Sakura and Captain Yamato grabbed one of the woman's hands and he watched wearily as black ink snaked over the woman's arms and body. This had a serious dampening effect on the green flames. Naruto let go, coughed and dropped to the ground beside the woman, sliding back to his normal form.

He peered sideways at the woman and gasped. Despite the seal, there was still some of the green aura circling her body, furthering the burns.

"Byakugan!" a soft voice stated. Naruto smiled slightly. He would know that voice anywhere, and it was filled with familiar resolve. He turned over just enough to see Hinata squinting at the girl through the green haze, finding her chakra points.

The strikes were too fast for him to see in his weakened state, but he could tell that Hinata had been careful to be as gentle as possible while still effectively sealing the woman's chakra points. Naruto pushed himself into a sitting position, wincing as his sore hands touched the ground. He still felt awful, but now that the vibrations had stopped he felt marginally better.

He looked over to the woman and his stomach dropped. Although the green chakra had been sealed away, she had sustained incredibly bad burns over a large portion of her body. Looking at her raw, blistered skin made him feel ill. He glanced to his pink-haired comrade, who was determinedly kneeling over the girl with her medical ninjutsu. Her green eyes flicked to Naruto and Yamato. "I need to get her back to Konoha. It'll take me, Tsunade and probably Shizune together to save this lady. She's got a lot of internal damage besides the burns."

"We're a day and a half away from Konoha," Kiba bluntly stated. "There is no way we can get her back in time."

Naruto shakily got to his feet. He swayed slightly, but felt a small pair of hands come support him. Leaning on Hinata's shoulder, he turned to face the team. "Well, there is one possibility. I haven't perfected it yet but it could be worth a shot." He winced as he reached into his bag, and pulled out something out. Grinning, Naruto opened his already healing hand to reveal one of his father's special kunai.


	2. Chapter 2 - Displaced

(A/N): Hi everyone! This is the updated chapter two. It has more OC perspective. Please review! :)

* * *

Chapter 2 - Displaced

Rynn woke with a start, feeling wetness at her nose. Lightly touching her fingers to her face, she let out a small gasp upon noticing they were stained with blood. She stumbled through a dark and cluttered bedroom fearing the worse. Rynn could count on one hand the amount of times she had ever had a nosebleed; the rarity of the situation made her heart thump with mild panic. Still drowsy from sleep, she flicked on the bathroom light and shuffled in to face the mirror.

She started to worry more as she watched the rivulet of blood coming out of her left nostril lengthen until it dripped past her lip. Blood began to drip from the other side as well. She tried to quell the rising panic in her chest and grabbed some tissue.

It wasn't enough. More blood poured out of her nose, soaking through the wad of tissue she had originally grabbed. Rynn reached for more tissue but missed as a wave of nausea and dizziness overtook her. Falling to the floor, she found herself to be curiously weak. Her mouth had a metallic, coppery taste as she tried to call out to her sleeping boyfriend, but her plea of help came out fuzzy and muffled. The world seemed like it was spinning and all Rynn could hear was her own pounding heartbeat. She coughed and sputtered as more blood from her nose ran down the back of her throat. Her vision blurred as she looked down at her hands which were stained, as if she had been finger painting with the colour red. Slowly, the world became small and dark and she passed out on the cold linoleum of the bathroom floor.

* * *

A smile played on her lips. She felt very peaceful, and warm. Lying somewhere soft and comfortable, Rynn listened to the birds chirping outside the window, utterly relaxed. The peaceful feeling shattered abruptly as she remembered what had happened before she gone unconscious. '_Am I dead_?'

Her eyes flicked open to take in her surroundings and the first thing she saw was white, which only furthered her suspicions that she had burned to death in those horrible green flames. A few more blinks however, showed her that she was staring at white ceiling tiles, which were supported by equally white walls. She turned her head slightly and saw an IV drip with the attached tubing making its way into her fully bandaged arm. She relaxed again at the familiarity of the surroundings. Rynn was clearly in a hospital.

Beyond the IV pole was a young woman sitting near the hospital bed, carefully removing flower heads and placing them into a heavy book. Rynn felt slightly uneasy at the fact that there was a stranger in her hospital room, but it was hard to look at anyone pressing flowers as a serious threat. "Whhrroo…" Rynn trailed off, wincing. Her throat felt raw and bone dry. Her failed attempt at communication didn't go unnoticed though, and the girl pressing flowers turned and smiled softly at her. Rynn's eyes narrowed as she took in the woman's eyes. They were a light lavender colour and they had no discernible pupil, but Rynn was sure that she couldn't be blind just by the way she had been handling her idle crafting. It was like nothing she had ever seen and her heart sank at the realization that maybe the nightmare from the previous weeks hadn't been some sort of prolonged dream.

The raven haired girl gracefully stood up and poked her head out the door to talk to someone unseen. "Someone go tell Sakura and the Hokage! She's awake!" The girl with the strange eyes returned to her seat near the foot of the bed and turned to her again.

"H-Hello. I'm Hinata. Please don't be too worried! You're safe here!"

Rynn took a sip of water from the cup she noticed on a bedside table. "Where is here?" Her voice still sounded raspy and unused, but at least she could talk clearly. The girl named Hinata smiled again. "We're in the Hidden Leaf Hospital. I'm sure once the Hokage speaks with you, they'll be able to help you get home soon. Where are you from? We weren't sure if you were a ninja since we couldn't find a forehead protector and you were in no condition to tell us whether you were a civilian or not."

'_A civilian? Is this some sort of military compound_?' Rynn wondered to herself. She was fairly certain that these people were not from her country. She wasn't sure how she had gotten overseas, but considering her patchy memory of the last few weeks, Rynn couldn't be sure it wasn't a possibly. She had remained unconscious a lot of the time, and it was obvious that someone had kidnapped her before these people had come along. She decided on honesty.

"My name is Rynn. I'm from…well, I'm Canadian."

Hinata paused. "I-I'm afraid I haven't heard of this place. Is it a village? What nation is it found in?"

Rynn felt like there was an elephant sitting on her chest. She bit her bottom lip as hot tears made their way into her eyes. It didn't seem possible that somewhere with a developed hospital hadn't at least heard of her home nation. Immediately, she felt stupid for crying in front of this girl. "I-I'm sorry. I just think," she sniffled a little and wiped her eyes with a bandaged hand, "that I'm a long way from home." Hinata looked sympathetic, but before she could say anything, several figures walked into the hospital room.

One was a blonde, well endowed woman whose presence seemed to demand authority. She was followed by a younger woman with pink hair, a brown-haired gentleman in what seemed to be some sort of military garb, a grinning blonde guy in orange track pants and lastly, a sort of scary looking guy with a tattooed face and a huge dog. Rynn swallowed and pulled the blanket on the bed up a little higher, drawing childish comfort from the action. The pink haired girl turned, looked around the room and frowned. "Maybe so many people in here visiting isn't a great idea, master Tsunade. It must be a little overwhelming, and she still needs some time for full recovery."

The blonde lady named Tsunade smiled. "Ordinarily I'd agree, but I thought it only fair that the team that successfully brought in this girl in be able to see how she was doing, given the grievous injuries sustained."

Rynn swallowed thickly. Just what was she going to find underneath all these bandages? She glanced at her heavily banadaged hands and shivered slightly at the memory of the burning sensation and the strange green light. It had started with a feeling like she had dipped cold hands into hot water and ended with her blacking out to the smell of her own charred flesh. So these were the people who had saved her? Odd. She seemed to remember someone showing up who was glowing. Of course, her memories did seem quite fuzzy. Perhaps she had imagined it.

"Oi!" the rough looking guy shouted, "Aren't you going to answer the Hokage? I don't like this. She could be some sort of spy for the enemy!" She had been so absorbed into her own thoughts she had missed the question.

"Kiba," Hinata started softly, "I don't think Rynn is much of a threat to anyone." She gave Rynn an encouraging smile.

"Yeah! Besides Kiba, this room is under ANBU guard. Quit worrying, would ya?" the orange pants guy said.

The one named Kiba scowled, and Rynn shrunk down a little bit more in the hospital bed at the word 'guard'. "Am…am I a prisoner here?"

* * *

"Am…am I a prisoner here?" the bandaged girl named Rynn asked. She was still bandaged over most of her body, with only a few shocks of red hair escaping the bindings near her face. What was clearly visible however, were two small but intricate seals located on her forehead, right above her eyes. Hinata knew that all over her body such marks covered each of her main chakra points, effectively sealing her chakra off. Hinata and her sister Hanabi had worked closely with the medic-nins and a sealing jutsu expert to create them in an attempt to prevent the woman's strange chakra from destroying her.

Hinata sighed. She felt sorry for the girl; she was clearly terrified and confused. And yet, Kiba had a point. They really didn't know if she was a spy, or an experiment or even just a plain old victim. The terror she had seen in the girl's eyes and the state she had been in when they found her convinced Hinata that it was more likely to be the latter.

The Hokage let out a heavy sigh as her face became more serious. "I'm afraid that for now, we need to keep you guarded. Just until we know that you aren't a threat."

The girl was clearly holding back tears. Her lower lip quivered and she squeaked out an "okay."

The Fifth turned to Kiba and Naruto. "I'll be questioning her for a bit with Yamato, but you two don't need to be here. Sakura is right, it's far too crowed. You've seen that she's okay, so head out. But send Yamanaka Ino in here please!"

"Come on, Kiba, let's go," Naruto said, tugging on the Inuzuka's arm. "Dogs probably shouldn't be in a hospital anyways!"

"Hey! You know ninken don't count for that rule!" Kiba shouted, following a snickering Naruto out the door. Akamaru barked in agreement.

"Who says I was talking about Akamaru?"

The rest of the conversion was cut off as Yamato closed the door. He turned to the girl in the hospital bed.

"Start from the beginning. Who are you? How did you end up held captive underground?" Yamato asked, not unkindly.

"Umm…" she faltered, clearly nervous.

Hinata smiled at the girl. "It's okay, Rynn. No one is going to hurt you. But we can't help you either without more information," she quietly reassured the injured woman. She seemed to steel herself a bit, and began talking.

"Um, I'm sorry; I'm not sure where to start. My name is Rynn Ryeburn. I'm a medical student…ah, fourth year. I'm from Vancouver originally but I was going to school in the prairies…" she trailed off, looking around between the confused faces in the room. "I guess you haven't heard of my country either? Well, um, anyways, I woke up one night with a nosebleed and just got really sick. I blacked out in my bathroom. When I woke up, I was in a damp, muddy cell. There was a man there who…experimented on me and three others that I met. I mean, I think he did; he mostly used some sort of hypnosis to keep us asleep. I…I never saw his face, he kept it covered. He had silver-ish hair though?"

Yamato and Tsunade shared a meaningful look. Hinata bit her lip. If the enemy was using genjustu, they wouldn't have much way of knowing if anything the foreigner said was true. Even her memories could have been altered.

"He did something to me to make this weird green light come out of my hands. I'm not sure what he expected me to do with it. It just burned me…" She shuddered before continuing. "He beat me when he realized I didn't know what to do. The other girl who was there, um, Amari Drywa, she could control it. It was pink light that came out of her, but it made me feel really sick when she used it. It was like some sort of awful buzzing in my head. I passed out and when I woke up she was gone. I'm not sure what happened to her." Rynn frowned at the memory.

The Hokage pursed her lips. "This Amari girl. Do you know where she was from?"

"She told me she was from the Great city of Rhol. It wasn't a place I'd heard of before."

Hinata hadn't heard of such a city either. The situation continued to get stranger and stranger. Both the names Rynn and Amari sounded very foreign but not as if they were of the same origin. Perhaps the women had been taken from different nations? There was a brisk knock at the door and Ino entered the room. "Hokage, you asked for me?"

Ino looked around the room, and smiled as she noticed Hinata. Hinata gave her lively friend a small wave as Tsunade began explaining the situation to the young Yamanaka clan member.

"We have reason to believe this woman may be under some sort of memory altering genjutsu. I need to you look into her mind and check for any evidence of tampering, and verify what she told us was the truth."

Rynn's eyes widened to saucer-like proportions. She turned to Hinata. "It isn't going to hurt is it?" she whispered. The raven-haired girl shook her head. "You don't have anything to worry about. Ino is a friend of mine, she'd never purposely hurt someone who was innocent."

Ino walked over to the hospital bed and smiled brightly at the foreigner. "Hi! I'm Ino, just relax okay? I'm going to rest my hand on your forehead."

* * *

Ino placed her hand on the girl's forehead gingerly, trying to avoid too much pressure on the bandaged spots. Her eyes narrowed slightly as her vision passed over the detailed seals on Rynn's forehead. '_So this is the one that almost burned to death in her own chakra huh_?' Ino thought, thinking back to the recent rumors she had heard. Her lips turned up into an almost imperceptible smile. She loved getting the first hand scoop on something interesting.

Her hand in place, Ino entered the girl's mind, fully expecting to be greeted by the enemy's booby-traps. Surprise overtook her when she realized there wasn't anything nefarious waiting for her. In fact, there wasn't even any sort of metal block stopping Ino from searching through the woman's memories and thoughts. '_Odd. Most shinobi have some sort of metal barrier up. Maybe she really is just a civilian_?'

She began sifting through Rynn's memories starting from a month or so before today. Confusion welled up in her as she watched the girl's memories from the last month. Where exactly was this girl from?!

Like a ghost walking around in a world she couldn't touch, Ino watched as the girl got ready for work, rushing around in a very unfamiliar looking environment. There was a lot of technology cluttered about the small apartment, much of which Ino couldn't place. Making a sweeping motion with her hands, she skipped forward. She now noted her surroundings to be a hospital but something was off. She watched for several minutes when it hit her: after watching 6 hours worth of this girl's work day in what was clearly a hospital, she didn't once see anyone using a medical jutsu. In fact, after skipping rapidly through several days, she didn't seem to see anyone using any sort of jutsu at all.

Slightly shaken up, she skipped several days until she found something of note. She watched as the girl woke up in the middle of the night with a nosebleed, and crawled over her boyfriend to get to the washroom. At this moment, something very odd occurred with the memory. Everything seemed to get extremely fuzzy, and Ino watched eyes wide as two images seemed to overlap one another. Placing the memory into slow motion, she watched as two scenarios unfolded simultaneously. In one, Rynn wiped up a small amount of blood and returned to bed. In the other, she became very ill and passed out on the floor. Ino noted the memory of returning to bed was slightly fuzzier than the one of passing out and that it degraded far quicker than the 'passing out scenario' as well. '_Strange_,' she thought, as she skipped to the next memory, '_how can she have two memories of the same event_?' She had felt some residual unknown chakra in the memory as well. Clearly, this Rynn person had been the victim of some sort of jutsu, although Ino was still unsure exactly what it was. It wasn't a genjutsu, but it had definitely interacted with her memory patterns in some way. That said, they didn't show any signs of alteration.

Rynn seemed to have very few memories of her captivity, most of the time her captor put her and the other prisoners she saw asleep with genjutsu. Her captor's jutsus looked familiar though. They weren't anything that Ino knew specifically, but it was obvious to her that they were based off of the basic shinobi hand signs.

Ino dropped her hand away from the girl's head, exhausted. Feeling somewhat grim, she turned to the Hokage. "I can give my full report to you by the morning, but I can tell you this right away. I'm almost certain that this girl…she's not from another country. I think she's from another dimension!"


	3. Chapter 3 - An Afternoon in Light & Dark

(A/N): This is the updated version of chapter three. All chapters after this should be up to the same standard as the previous now and won't need updating. Thanks again for the support that people have given this story! Cheers!

* * *

Chapter 3 – An Afternoon in Light and Dark

Naruto stretched out on his favorite hilltop park bench and basked in the sun, waiting to meet up with Hinata for the afternoon. He was hoping she would take him shopping and help him pick out a new outfit, as part of his orange and black outfit had been ruined beyond repair on his last mission. Hinata was actually spending the morning at the hospital visiting Rynn, the girl who had nearly died in front of him on the same occasion that wrecked his favorite outerwear. He scratched his head and frowned a bit at the thought of that day. He still couldn't figure out who the silver-haired man was, despite the familiar voice. It was driving him mad! He also hadn't puzzled out exactly what those vibrations that had made him feel so sick had been either.

Shikamaru and some of the other ninja of the Konoha intelligence sector had a theory about it, something about charka from other dimensions. Shikamaru had tried to explain the theory to him, but the majority of the complicated details had escaped Naruto's attention and in the end, his friend gave up on trying to explain what he thought had occurred. Of course, there was no way to test the theory since the girl's chakra was sealed now, and she hadn't even been cleared to leave the hospital yet.

He shook his head, sending spiky blonde locks into his eyes. Naruto had wanted to clear his head today of recent events not dwell on them. Channeling his genius friend, he watched clouds go past, enjoying one of the first truly warm days of the summer. It was incredibly peaceful to gaze at the fluffy clouds, and he almost fell asleep by the time Hinata arrived at their prearranged meeting spot.

Naruto watched as his friend walked up toward the bench he was spread out on. She was wearing a loose purple t-shirt and navy knee-length cargo shorts. The outfit was overly baggy, but Naruto thought that Hinata looked kind of pretty in it. In fact, he thought she looked sort of pretty most of the time. A blush and a smile simultaneously crept across her face as she noticed him on the bench.

"Hi Naruto! Sorry to have kept you waiting. I lost track of time at the hospital and Master Tsunade wanted a few words with me before I left."

"It's alright Hinata," he greeted her with a brief hug that made them both blush a little, "it's a nice day to relax in the sun anyways."

Naruto ran his hand through his wayward blonde hair as they both awkwardly stood apart post-hug. "So, uh, want to come help me grab a new jacket? I probably need a girl's help finding new clothes but I'll pay for shopping help with some ramen after?"

"N-Naruto, I think you might new pants too," Hinata pointed out, looking down at Naruto's over-exposed ankles. "I'd be happy to help though! You don't have to bribe me with lunch for it." She smiled, and he resolved to buy the raven-haired girl lunch regardless of the outcome of their combined shopping efforts.

The duo walked at a comfortable pace toward the center of Konoha's shopping district, with Naruto noting that Hinata seemed slightly shorter than before. He had only been slightly taller than her for the duration of the Fourth Shinobi War, but now she was several inches shorter than him. His throat grew a little tight at the thought of the war, and what had happened after it. Hinata had helped him out so much around that time, especially when she had helped him keep his resolve while fighting the Ten-tails host. It was the third time in his life he had felt truly appreciative of her support. And yet, he was plagued by guilt every time he thought about her confession of love to him because he hadn't really given her a clear answer yet. After the war had ended, they had talked and decided to spend more time getting to know each other better before any hasty decisions were made. They had definitely spent a lot of time together since then, but he still hadn't figured out whether he returned her feelings or not.

He knew how she felt about him, yet he found himself still racked with indecision. Naruto knew he cared about her a great deal, and that he had fun hanging out with her. But was that love? He wasn't sure. And he couldn't say anything to her until he was, it just wouldn't be fair treatment to someone he considered a close friend.

"You're very quiet today, Naruto," Hinata spoke, looking up at him with a timid smile, "Is something on your mind?"

"Um, not much. I guess I'm just worried about that girl in the hospital, ya know?" he lied, feeling embarrassed but a little proud of his quick thinking.

Hinata's smile faltered a little bit. "She's healing pretty well physically, but she's very upset about finding out she can't easily go home. She's got a boyfriend and a family there that she really misses."

This made Naruto think back to his own childhood, and to the fate of his best friend Sasuke. "That's rough. She must be very lonely."

Hinata nodded. "That's why I've been visiting her. I mean, at first I started visiting because," Hinata's voice dropped to a near-whisper, "I thought she was going to die. I couldn't stand the thought of that poor girl dying alone in a hospital room. Once she pulled through, I thought it would horrible to go through something like she did and wake up alone. Now that she's awake and we know what happened, I just can't help but feel like I should try to help her adjust. Besides, she seems like a nice person, definitely not an enemy."

Naruto couldn't help but smile upon hearing Hinata's story. "You're the kindest person I've ever met, Hinata," he told her, still grinning. "Hey look! That store looks pretty promising; it's even got some orange stuff in the window! Come on!" Naruto headed briskly toward the store, gentle pulling Hinata by the arm behind him.

* * *

"You're the kindest person I've ever met, Hinata," he told her, still grinning. "Hey look! That store looks pretty promising; it's even got some orange stuff in the window! Come on!"

Hinata blushed furiously at the high praise just given to her, and the blaze on her face intensified as Naruto grabbed on to her arm and gently pulled her towards a clothing store. Naruto opened the door to the clothing store roughly, causing the bell to loudly declare their presence inside.

"Well, Hinata what do you think? I'm not really sure where to start…" Naruto's words trailed off as he pushed his way through the packed racks of the clothing store. If she was honest, Hinata was somewhat unsure herself. A lot of her clothes ended up being picked out by Sakura or TenTen, with Ino always pushing her to wear more revealing outfits that showed off her body.

She moved toward a rack of pants that looked similar to what Naruto had on already. Picking through the different styles, she found a black pair that had an orange stripe down the side of each leg. It took her a moment to find her long time crush in the crowded store, but she finally did, near the back. Naruto, who had already gotten distracted from the task at hand, was wearing a white bandana paired up with some very Shino-like sunglasses. When he saw her following him to the back of the store, he stuck a pose.

Hinata giggled a bit. "Pretty awesome looking, right?" Naruto said with a laugh. "I gotta pick out a winning outfit for when I finally become Hokage!"

Hinata smiled one of those wide smiles that seemed to only spring from Naruto's antics. "Now all your outfit needs is pants that actually fit!" She held out her find from earlier. He took the pants and headed to the change rooms at the back of the store while Hinata hunted for a matching top. It took a few minutes, but she managed to find a jacket that matched the pants. It was cut almost identically to Naruto's old jacket but coloured slightly differently. It was black with orange sleeves and an orange stripe running along the bottom of it.

Grabbing the jacket and a couple tank tops she figured would go well underneath, Hinata moved to the back of the store to pass off her finds to her friend, feeling suspiciously Ino-like. She had her own reasons for picking tank tops over normal t-shirts…

"So Hinata, what do you think? I think these fit a lot better than my old pants, don't you?"

Hinata turned to see that Naruto had come out of the change room, and her face turned a dark shade of red as she realized that he wasn't wearing his t-shirt. She immediately noticed that he hadn't just gotten taller; he had actually filled out all around, particularly in his chest and shoulders. His build was impressive, but Hinata forcefully made herself inspect the pants. "T-they fit g-great Naruto. I t-think they look r-really good," she stammered.

Looking with dedication toward his now-covered ankles, she mentally beat herself up for getting so flustered. It wasn't anything she hadn't seen before, after all, she had spent the previous summer training with Naruto. On really hot days, he rarely wore a shirt.

She looked up to see his blue eyes on her face with obvious concern. "Are you okay? You're looking really red. It's really warm in here," Naruto asked before fanning his face with his hand in the stuffy heat of the store.

Hinata nibbled slightly on her lower lip. "Y-yeah, I'm completely r-roasting in here," she agreed, maybe a little too quickly. "I found some matching shirts!" She passed him the garments, torn between him remaining bare-chested or trying them on.

"Thanks! I think these will work great, ya know!"

Naruto pulled a white tank top over his head and at a look at himself in a mirror.

"I guess this looks fairly good with the pants Hinata, but don't you think it's kinda tight?"

Hinata smiled before answering, making a mental note to thank Ino for teaching her how to shop.

* * *

Far, far away from Konoha, a dark haired man watched closely as two cloaked figures made their way over the difficult terrain to get to the bottom of a river valley. It was a remote area; in fact, the last settlement the mysterious due had even come close to was several days travel behind them. And a pair of startling red eyes had observed every move.

One figure turned abruptly, causing long silver hair to erupt from the cowl, and gestured to his companion. They exchanged words that the hidden man couldn't hear and then immediately began to paint an intricate seal on a space in the middle of the valley. Shrouded in the shadows of the forest surrounding the valley walls, the lone shinobi took in all the details of the seal that was forming before him. Even as far away as he was, it was easy to absorb the details. Nothing escapes the notice of one who has their brother's eyes.

Painting the seal took nearly three hours and by the time it was done, the sun was setting, casting long shadows over their painstaking work. The pair made their way to opposite sides of the massive circular seal and began in unison to go through a complex series of hand seals. Well concealed in a dense patch of underbrush, a pair of eyes seemed to glow red as Uchiha Sasuke committed the pattern of hand seals to memory: _Ne, Tatsu, Ni, Ushi, Tori. _These were followed by three hand seals that Sasuke had never seen before and thus couldn't name, although memorizing them wasn't difficult.

The figures before him repeated the hand seals continuously for the better part of an hour. The ninja tracking them has grown bored with the repetitive display but his attention sharpened as he noticed something odd happening in the space above the seal. It seemed to be shimmering almost, but even with his Sharingan he couldn't shake the fuzzy quality of the area. With a concentrated sigh, he released his eyes to next level of Sharingan.

His interest peaked further as with his vastly improved vision he noticed tiny blotches that were giving the space its strange appearance. Peering more intently, he noticed that they looked like small tears in the air, opening up to something else entirely. Over the course of the next few minutes the tears got wider and began to meet each other, resulting in massive holes that showed a scene that could only be described as foreign. Soon the area had opened up to the full size of the paint on the ground. As the strange hole reached its maximum size, both figures did the _hitsuji_ seal. With a blinding flash of light, the hole was gone and in its place was a chunk of a log structure. Its architecture was nothing like Sasuke had ever seen before. Stranger still, the entire painted seal was obscured by snow.

Intrigued, the village-less nin watched as the figures went into the shelter and dragged the body of a young man dressed in animal skins out. The man's face was covered in blood from what looked like some sort of nose bleed, but with his highly powered eyes he could see the man's pulse points fluctuating with signs of life. The silver-haired man and his small-statured companion carried the unconscious kid along the length of the valley, leaving muddy footprints in the dirt as the unseasonal snow melted off their shoes.

Sasuke blinked, and his eyes returned to their normal onyx colour. He began to follow the pair, but stopped short and hid as he noticed the approach of three ninja. He slipped back to his previous hiding spot and watched as the team of ninja bounced past him. He felt a familiar thump in his chest when he realized the team was made up of Konoha ANBU. In actuality, it was a perfect distraction. The pair of rogue ninjas he had been tracking was far more likely to catch on to the ANBU coming after them than Sasuke himself. Giving the ANBU team adequate space, he began his pursuit as well.

His relatively emotionless face worked itself into a frown as he followed the Konoha ninja and his targets. '_Even this far from civilization_,' he thought bitterly, '_I can't escape reminders of my past_.' He wondered idly if any of the ANBU in front of him were people he would recognize were they unmasked.

"Hn. Better off not knowing," he mumbled under his breath. He pushed thoughts of Konoha, and his last conversation with a certain medic-nin out of his mind and focused on the pursuit of his enemy, where living in the darkness was an asset.


	4. Chapter 4 – Shikamaru's Theory

(A/N): Sorry for the wait for anyone that was following this. I just felt I needed to up the standard of this fic since my ideas for it are going to have me in it for the long haul. I have another chapter basically ready as well, which I'll probably post tomorrow. Like always, please review with thoughts and constructive feedback! I hope you enjoy! :)

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Chapter4 – Shikamaru's Theory, Kakashi's Plan

Tsunade stretched, attempting to the work the kinks out of her neck. Once again, a long night of trying to play catch up with paperwork had resulted in her falling asleep at her desk. Letting out a heavy sigh, she frowned. She might look young, but after a night of awkwardly sleeping on a hard wooden surface, she definitely felt her real age. Sunlight was streaming in to the room through cracks in the blinds. It was still fairly early in the morning, but the Fifth Hokage had an early meeting with the two ninja working on theories as to what the enemy was up to.

One was brilliant, and worked with the Konoha Intelligence Sector, and the other was an experienced jounin who was able to liaison with the ANBU corps. She was certain that these two could use the information from the team who had infiltrated the enemy hideout and the observations of the ANBU teams in the field to come up with a solid theory as to what this new threat entailed.

As if on cue, there was a light rapping on the office door. Quickly adjusting her top to make sure she was decent, Tsunade called to her visitors "come in!"

A dark haired, serious looking young man and an older, silver-haired ninja strode into the room with the latter closing the door after the pair had entered. "Good to see you, Shikamaru, Kakashi. Sit down." She gestured to two seats in front of the desk. "What conclusions have your investigation come up with?"

"Hmm. How shall I put this?" Kakashi started. "It can't be anything good."

Tsunade rubbed her temples. "I'd surmised that much, Kakashi." She turned to look at the younger jounin. "Start from the top, Shikamaru. What do you think about that girl's chakra?"

The Nara clan ninja's expression looked bored, but his gaze was sharp. "I think it's a variation of natural energy. Ino seems to think that this Rynn person came from another dimension and I'm inclined to believe her. Out of all the people in the original party, only Naruto was actually affected by the chakra. He described discomfort from 'vibrations' from the weird chakra and according to him the Kyuubi stated that they were the 'wrong frequency'. Despite this, Naruto was still able to absorb and use the chakra, although it made him ill to do so. I'd theorize that only those with the ability to collect and use natural energy would be able to use this strange form of chakra."

Tsunade eyebrows came together as she mulled over the information presented by the genius ninja. "That doesn't explain how Rynn nearly roasted alive in natural chakra. To use Sage techniques generally takes time, dedication and skill. Most importantly, collecting the energy takes time."

Shikamaru sighed. "I have another theory about that. Whoever was holding those people captive definitely did something to them. Naruto said that the masked man responsible released some sort of seal or jutsu before the chakra started emanating from the girl. The sheer amount of energy that seemed to come off this girl suggests that this isn't a naturally occurring collection of nature energy. If we assume that what Ino says is correct, and that this girl came from another dimension, then I would say it's likely that in that world there is some sort of beacon there. There is likely to be a collection device of sorts, which would collect and send the natural energy from her dimension to her body."

"Simply put," Kakashi summarized, "this girl is constantly collecting natural chakra from her home dimension. But as we've seen, she doesn't have any knowledge on controlling chakra at all. Our intel from Yamanaka Ino suggests that she was a civilian in her world, but also that her home dimension has no notable use of chakra at all."

Folding her hands together on her desk, the Fifth looked over the two serious faces in front of her. "The thing that disturbs me most about this is that Rynn said that other prisoners _could_ control it. Assuming the other people kidnapped have similar power that could be quite a problem."

Nodding in agreement, Shikamaru spoke again. "This is just an educated guess, but I think that dimensions like Rynn's are probably an anomaly. Out of the handful of prisoners that she saw, she was the only one who couldn't instinctively use the chakra. To quote her, she said that she got the impression that the others were 'warriors'."

The former ANBU member looked grave. "The worst possible scenario here is that someone is building an army, an army of people with a constant flow of foreign natural chakra."

"And what is the likelihood that this is the worst possible scenario?"

Shikamaru gave a slight frown before answering. "It's far more probable than the likelihood that this is just some experiment. There would be no reason to deem that Rynn girl a failure if it was solely for inquiry into new types of jutsu."

"And add to that the fact that in our borders alone, the ANBU have found seven areas where there were the chunks of buildings deposited randomly in the middle of nowhere." Kakashi paused before continuing, "The last ANBU team that went out was able to locate and track the silver haired man that Naruto described for about 12 hours before they were discovered. The man and his accomplice had another prisoner with them who proved to be an able swordsman and able to use chakra-based attacks although they didn't seem to be jutsu that the ANBU members had ever seen."

"We also have to assume that now that we have been caught tracking this guy, they are going to be far more careful and stealthy than previously. I don't expect that we will see this guy any time soon. He even told Naruto that he didn't expect interference at this stage, which suggests again that this group will be underground now more than ever," Shikamaru stated.

"Perhaps," Tsunade added, "we can use this to our advantage. It sounds like we have some time to prepare, or maybe get a step ahead."

Kakashi's visible eye twinkled. "Master Hokage, I have a plan."

The Fifth Hokage's expression lightened somewhat. She could always count on Kakashi to be prepared. '_You'd make a fine Hokage yourself, Kakashi_,' she thought to herself as the jounin began to explain his plan.

* * *

Hinata knocked softly on the hospital room door and entered as a voice from inside called out for her to come inside. Smiling warmly, she saw that her friend was awake. Rynn was sitting cross-legged on the bed in baggy hospital hand-me downs, shuffling a deck of cards on the bedside table. The redhead smiled as the Hyuga entered the room. "Hey Hinata! I was hoping you'd be visiting today. I'm getting kinda sick of solitare!"

"I said I was going to, so you shouldn't have had to worry too much! I just ran into Kiba and Shino on my way here, and we ended up talking a while. They were out on a mission for the last week so I hadn't talked to them." Hinata watched the girl's mouth twitch slightly at the mention of her dog-loving teammate. Rynn wouldn't say anything to Hinata, but she could tell she didn't much like the loud Inuzuka. Hinata guessed that this was due to him accusing the foreigner of being an enemy of Konoha. She hoped to patch things up between the two eventually; she loathed it when her friends fought.

"Why don't you teach me how to play this Solitare game of yours? It looks interesting! I only know a couple card games that Naruto taught me."

"Well, it's not that interesting of a game, but it's a great way to waste time when you're bored!" Rynn said enthusiastically. She began shuffling the cards again, but winced and dropped the deck. "Gah! Sorry. My hands are still really stiff," she explained, flexing her fingers.

The light eyed girl tried not to be obvious in her effort to inspect her new friend's hands. They were intact, but there were many spots of discoloured skin and tight pink scars. "Here," she said, grabbing the deck off the table. "I'll shuffle; you can explain the rules while I do it."

"Perfect!" Rynn launched into a long winded explanation of the card game. It turned out that it was a simple game to learn but pretty hard to beat. Hinata only gave it one try before the duo decided to play something two player.

"So," the Hyuga started, "How have the last couple days been? I'm sorry I couldn't come to visit. I had a short mission to take care of myself."

The redhead shrugged, and played a card from her hand. "Okay I guess. That friend of yours, the mind reader one? She came to see me." Her red hair bobbed as she gestured with her neck towards a vase of flowers by the window. "It was really nice of her. She gave me a lot of gossip about people I didn't know though. Naruto came by once too. He stayed for a bit and played some cards with me. It was nice to have the company. I mean, not that I'm guilting anyone. I know you guys are busy with your, erm, ninja stuff." She laughed nervously.

Hinata had explained a little bit about the village and about ninjas to her friend. The topic still made Rynn act weirdly. She had found it hard to accept that people her age and younger were already veterans of a massive war. Pretending to ignore her friend's awkwardness, Hinata probed further. "How have the healing sessions with Sakura been going?"

Rynn's face lit up slightly. "Really good! She told me that I'll be able to leave the hospital in the next couple days. I'll still have to come back for some rehabilitation stuff though. My hands still get tired from pretty menial stuff, like holding a pencil."

A smile spread across Hinata's face. "I'm glad things are going so well." Inwardly, Hinata was wondering what the Hokage was planning to do with her displaced friend. After leaving the hospital, where would she go? How would she support herself in a Hidden Village? There was a civilian population here, but Rynn didn't have any astounding skills to support herself with. After all, she was a partially trained doctor from a place where doctors didn't use medical jutsu. The kind-hearted kunoichi hadn't discussed these worries with her friend, but she was concerned for the girl's wellbeing once she left her long stay at the hospital behind.

"Soo, uh, how was your mission?" Rynn tentatively asked.

"It was fine. It was only C-rank, and quite short."

The other girl nodded. "Good. I was a little worried. I think Naruto was too, actually. He tried to hide it, but he mentioned several times that he hoped you be okay. Then he would reassure himself by telling me how you guys had trained together and that you were a really strong fighter. It was kinda cute."

Hinata felt her face start to warm up. "H-how thoughtful of h-him to worry about m-me." Feeling the piercing stare of her friend's blue eyes, she looked up. Rynn had her eyebrow raised.

"You LIKE him, don't you!" The foreigner giggled wildly at figuring this out, which made Hinata laugh quietly. No one had reacted like this for years, since her affection for the reckless blonde shinobi was fairly common knowledge. "So," Rynn started, wiggling her eyebrows. "Have you guys been on a date?"

"Eh, it's quite c-complicated, Rynn." Hinata bit her lip slightly, trying to compose herself and stop the stuttering. To think that someone thought that Naruto had a crush on _her_! She was certain that they were nothing more than friends in his eyes. After all, he had had a lot of time to respond to her confession…

"Start from the beginning! I've got nothing but time!" Rynn was grinning, card game forgotten.

"Well, I suppose I could explain our history a little more. It is quite a long tail though. I'm not sure I'd have enough time in one visit to really explain things. It started even before the academy…"

Hinata's explanation was nipped in the bud as there was a brisk knock on the door, followed by the Hokage entering the room, along with Master Kakashi, and Nara Shikamaru. "Master Tsunade," Hinata made a slight bow, "I didn't expect to see you here."

"We have some issues to discuss with Miss Ryeburn here."

"Of course, Master Tsunade. I'll just come back in a little bit," Hinata said, heading towards the door.

"No!" Rynn half shouted. Looking horrified, she covered her mouth. "I mean, um, Madam Hokage, could she stay? Please? I, um, you guys look really serious. If I could have a friend stay in here or something…"

The Fifth's severe expression softened. "Alright, Miss Hyuga may stay, since I do deem her trust-worthy enough. What were are about to discuss is fairly sensitive information though, so I do expect that you both," she looked pointedly at Rynn, "keep this information quiet. Understood?"

The heiress nodded in ascent and watched as a wide-eyed Rynn blurted out "Yes sir! Er, maam!"

The corner of Tsunade's mouth hitched upward slightly as she tried to keep her serious face. The girl was clearly terrified of the Hokage. Hinata frowned slightly. Perhaps explaining the power the Hokage could wield had been a tad premature, she thought as she returned to the side of the bed to sit down.

"Okay. Shikamaru and Kakashi are going to explain their theories about what's going on to you both, and outline the plan that we just discussed."

* * *

Rynn sat in stunned silence after the two ninjas laid out their theory and the evidence behind it. To think that something or someone supernatural had pulled her from her world _as a weapon_ seemed absolutely preposterous, although she had to admit, the logic behind it seemed pretty sound. "Um, Mr. Shikamaru, right? I have a question. Why…why do you think this guy took me? I mean, there are literally thousands of people more deadly than me in my world. Probably hundreds of thousands, actually."

The intelligence officer frowned slightly. "Shikamaru is my given name. And to answer your question, I think it's because you have an intrinsic, albeit latent ability to handle large amounts of chakra. If my theory is correct, the average person would rapidly combust with that kind of chakra being funneled into you."

Shivering a bit, Rynn looked confused. "But didn't that already kind of happen?" She looked thoughtfully at her hands, and the two intricate seals that completely covered each palm.

Shikamaru shook his head. "No, I mean they would burn to a crisp in seconds if they had no idea how to control chakra. The fact that the team _had time_ to save you at all proves that you have uncommon resilience in that regard."

Rynn swallowed loudly and nibbled on her lower lip. "I have one more question for you Shikamaru. This transmitter you talked about. Is there a way for you guys to track it? Do you think…do you think I can get back home?"

"In theory, it's possible to reverse the technique used to bring you to this world."

Her heart jumped. She could go back! She could get out of this crazy, dangerous place and back to Jamie, and her family.

Shikamaru seemed to read her thoughts.

"Lady, you probably shouldn't get too excited. We have no idea how this space-time jutsu was performed and therefore have no idea how to reverse it. It's troublesome, but the only way to it is to capture that person who brought you here in the first place."

'_Right_. _The one building the super-powered army of freaks like me,_' she thought. She took several deep breaths and rubbed the bridge of her nose to dispel the tense feeling brought on by holding back tears. There was literally a fledgling army between her and her lover.

"So then, what are you guys planning to do?"

The ninja with his face covered up almost completely stepped forwards. "To put this shortly, we need to capture this man and find a way to send you home. If we send you home…"

"…you send the army home," Rynn finished.

"Exactly. A win-win for all parties right?" The man's one visible eye crinkled into what Rynn assumed must be a smile. "I won't bore you two with the details, but we have been tracking this man. We lost him for the time being but the hunt for him will resume shortly."

"In the mean time, what's going to happen to me?" Rynn questioned, "I mean, this hunt could take a long time. I can't just stay living in a hospital room, right?"

The Hokage spoke up to answer her question. "I've found you a small apartment. For the first two months the expense will be covered by the village until you can begin saving money. To make money well, you'll just have to do some odd jobs around the village. I've found a few places willing to use you as extra help."

"The Hokage didn't mention one other thing to you," Kakashi interjected, "Starting next week you'll be training with me."

Rynn couldn't contain the horrified look that came over her face. "T-training?! For what? I'm…I've never been much of a fighter…"

The older man cut off her rambles "Frankly, it's dangerous for any of us to be around you. If any enemy ninja got into the village and found you, you could easily be used to help destroy the village via genjutsu. Even if a single seal was broken, innocent people could get hurt. We don't really have much of a choice but to teach you chakra control."

Rynn fell silent at his words. _Dangerous._ She never wanted to hurt anyone, in fact she had only ever wanted to save people. That's why she had been studying to be a doctor, after all. She thought of the people who had been so kind to her in the past weeks, Hinata especially. She shuddered at the thought of them dying because of her. Glancing to her only friend in this strange land, she decided to try her best to master whatever chakra control was. It seemed it was the closest thing she could do to saving people here.

"Now," Kakashi continued at length, "I'm of the belief that you should be trained in other skills as well. There is some likelihood that this captor of yours could decide to come retrieve you if he figures out that you survived. It's best to be prepared. Also, you may be wondering why you'll be training with me. Well, someone needs to be around who's able to do a decent sealing jutsu for one. Two…should you become some sort of explosive threat to the populace, I can put you into another dimension." Kakashi ended his dark spiel with another smile, but this made Rynn feel more nervous rather than reassured.

She felt Hinata's hand gently touch her shoulder. "Don't worry Rynn; I'm sure that's just a farfetched precaution."

"Yeah…"

"In better news, I'm clearing you to be released from the hospital tomorrow." The Hokage gave her a small smile after flipping through what Rynn assumed was her chart. "Sakura seems to think that you are ready to be managed as an outpatient. Hinata, you can come get Rynn tomorrow morning and help her get settled in the apartment we're having set up. Consider it a D-rank mission."

Her light-eyed friend smiled. "I'd be happy to, Master Tsunade."

"Good. I've got preparations to attend to. Goodbye, Hinata, Rynn."

The Hokage left as abruptly as she had come in, and the two male ninja left soon after she did. This left Rynn and Hinata, sitting on the bed with the former in very dark spirits. "At least you have a couple days to relax outside of the hospital before work and training begins," Hinata started, trying to lift her friend's dampened spirits. "I can take you to see a few sights! And maybe go to the hot springs!"

Rynn gave a half-hearted smiled that didn't quite reach her eyes. "That sounds like a plan Hinata. Thanks."

That night, after Hinata left, Rynn lay in bed, sleepless and silently panicking. She stared at the darkened ceiling, the day's events replaying continuously in her head. What if they couldn't capture this mysterious man? What if she never got back home? What if she was killed in this weird place; caught in a war that she had absolutely no business being in the middle of? The tears that she had held back earlier began to leak out. Flipping over, she buried her face in her pillow and let the sobs rack her body. She missed home so badly that is was physically painful in her chest.

If her boyfriend Jamie were here, he would tell her to make the most of things, to stay positive. Then again, when had she ever listening to his advice about optimism? She laughed somewhat bitterly into her pillow, with tears still running down her face. '_Perhaps I'll listen this time Jamie. Your voice in my head is all I have left of you right now_.'

She thought of Hinata's promise to bring her to the hot springs and decided to try and be excited for that in the future, rather than dwelling on the fact that she seemed to be a carefully sealed time-bomb.

'_One day at a time_.'

Eventually, Rynn cried herself out and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.


	5. Chapter 5 – Getting to Know Konoha

(A/N): Since it was such a wait between last chapters, I decided to post this one pretty quickly after Chp. 4. Chp 6 already in the works, so hopefully the wait will be less than a week. A big thanks to the few who faved/followed/reviewed! It's appreciated!

* * *

Chapter 5 – Getting to Know Konoha

Rynn had still been asleep when Hinata came to pick her up the next morning. When the redhead had finally gotten up and opened the door for her, she had noted that her eyes had looked a little puffy. Despite this, Rynn seemed to be in a somewhat cheerful mood. Hinata was unsure how much of this was forced, but it was clear that she was happy to finally have the hospital room behind her.

"Got everything ready to go?" Hinata asked, feeling excited for her friend.

"Well, there wasn't exactly much to pack. I literally don't even have a jacket." Rynn held up a small bag. "A nurse was kind enough to give me this bag so I could pack my copious belongings" she said dryly. She opened it and motioned for the raven-haired girl to have a look inside. Hinata took a peak and laughed a bit. Inside was a pack of playing cards with a ramen logo on the outside, a get-well card that Hinata had made, one extra outfit of used clothes and two ballpoint pens that read 'Hidden Leaf Hospital' on the side.

"I'm not sure how you fit everything in here Rynn. You are a genius of travel."

"My skills are pretty renowned. I'll let you in on a secret. I totally just took one of those pens. I'm pretty much a rebel menace."

Hinata laughed softly. "Oh definitely! Anyways Rynn, don't worry too much. Me and a few of the others donated some things to your new place. And don't worry about a jacket, either. It's actually quite warm outside!"

Hinata listened quietly to her more exuberant friend's chatter as they left hospital. Pushing the heavy front doors of the lobby open, the pair stepped into the early morning sun. Rynn's ongoing musings ceased as she took in the beautiful summer morning. The Hyuga looked over the view as well. Really, it was a perfect introduction to Konoha for Rynn. The sky was a deep blue hue that can only really be achieved at the height of summer, and the view of the city up to the mountain carvings was an impressive one even in poorer weather.

"Wow!" the redhead breathed, "It's beautiful! And it's so nice to be in fresh air again!" Hinata watched with amusement as Rynn danced around a bit, doing a slight twirl. It was really quite a goofy looking sight, because her friend was wearing some _really _ugly clothes.

"Come on, let's get to your new place. We can drop off your bag and then I'll show you the sights!"

Hinata inwardly laughed about her friend's display of excitement. The girl was quite the chameleon. There were times when her antics seemed to remind her so strongly of a certain blonde prankster that you'd think they were related. Other times, Rynn seemed very reserved and nervous, something Hinata herself could easily identify with.

Speaking of Hinata's favorite blonde, it became clear throughout the course of the walk that Rynn hadn't forgotten the previous day's discussion about Hinata's love life either. The foreigner asked a couple probing questions about Naruto that left the heiress' face warming up with a steady blush. She managed to deflect the queries, but she knew it was only a matter of time before she had to explain the situation.

The thought did strike her that she could take Rynn to Ichiraku's later for lunch and possibly run into Naruto there. She quickly discounted this idea; chastising herself for using Rynn for her own nefarious purposes. Then again, Rynn probably wouldn't know the difference and Hinata hadn't had ramen in awhile…

Hinata pushed her moral dilemma aside as they reached the area of town that the small apartment was in. "This is pretty close to the place, so I'll point out a couple things for you." Rynn nodded, and let Hinata take over the conversation. In her usual quiet voice, she began pointing out landmarks, and important stores. She pointed out the closest grocery store, the apothecary and fairly dodgy bar that Hinata warned her friend to avoid in a more serious tone than usual. Soon though, they had reached the building. It certainly wasn't the most well-kept building on the street. Peaking down at the small paper that had a makeshift map etched onto it, Hinata double checked the address. "Your place is on the third floor."

The pair sized up a rickety set of wooden stairs. "Umm…be careful of splinters?" The two shared a nervous glance that broke into a short spell of laughter. Hinata ventured up first, with Rynn following close behind. Soon, they were at the front door. The door itself looked old, but it was freshly painted a charming red colour. Passing the key to the red-haired tenant, Hinata smiled. "You do the honours."

She was strangely excited for Rynn to see the place. She had personally seen to it that it had been freshened up and gotten some new things for it. It was a very rare thing for Hinata to use her status as a clan heir to get things like this done short notice. Her father had been so surprised that Hinata had been able to read his emotion for a moment, and could actually _see _how surprised he was. He seemed to approve though, as he didn't stop her from making the hurried and somewhat demanding arrangements.

Rynn wrestled the old lock into submission and opened the door. She gasped. The apartment was a small studio, mostly square with a bathroom tacked on to the back right. The back left corner was an L-shaped kitchen, with a fairly big bed squished into the space between the kitchen and the outer wall that was on the left of the door. The other side had a small seating area with a desk and large bookcase. Two closets made up the back wall. The furniture was arranged in such a way that the space looked cozy rather than crowded. Hinata beamed. Her co-conspirators, Ino and Sakura, had done a great job arranging things inside.

Rynn turned to face her, eyes shining. "You had something to do with this, didn't you?"

With just a touch of a blush, Hinata nodded. "Ino and Sakura helped out a lot though. They picked a lot of stuff out, I just, well, had it paid for and things."

She was suddenly engulfed a tight hug. "Thank you! Thank you guys so much! You've been so nice to me, and I never really deserved it! Please thank Ino and Sakura for me when you see them!"

A huge grin on her face, Hinata pulled away from the hug. "There is a little more, Rynn." Hinata went to a closet at the back. It was filled with more clothes then Hinata had originally suggested (Ino's doing), but Hinata reached for a medium sized box at the bottom. She pulled it out, and passed it to Rynn. "Last week, a tracking unit went back to a few sites that the enemy was known to have been at in order to pick up trail or a scent to track. They found out that they were…well they were in what was left of the apartment you were in when you got transported here. A lot of things were destroyed but the things that weren't the team bought back for you."

Rynn opened the box, pulling out random items. There were several articles of clothing, a few books and knickknacks and two picture frames. As the red haired girl pulled the last two items out of the box, tears filled her eyes and ran quietly down her face. "Thank you," she whispered. Moving slowly with a lot of care, the girl placed the two pictures down on a shelf beside the bed, under the window.

Hinata stole a quick glance at the photos. One of Rynn and a dark haired man with intense light blue eyes. Rynn was grinning and the man had his arm around her. It had to be a picture of Rynn and her boyfriend Jamie. The other featured a young woman who looked very similar to Rynn, with the two of them smiling, throwing victory signs at the camera. Hinata guessed that it was maybe a sister or a cousin.

Rynn laughed suddenly, using the sleeve of her awful brown shirt to wipe the salted water from her face. "I'm sorry Hinata. I guess I don't look very grateful right now." She stopped to sniffle. "I'm…I'm okay now."

"It's fine, Rynn. Don't mind me. Why don't you get changed and I can show you around some more. I booked some time at the hot springs for this afternoon too!"

Rynn smiled, and headed to the closets to find something to wear, still occasionally wiping her eyes on her sleeve.

It turned out that Rynn had an eye for clothing that was closer to that of Ino and Sakura than her own, and she easily put together an outfit out of the clothing the two kunoichi had procured, despite her insistence that she felt kind of odd in what she described as 'ninja garb'.

"What do you think, Hinata? Do I look okay?" Rynn did a quick turn to show off her chosen outfit. She was wearing a pair of red shorts and a black tank top with a loose, partly transparent, long sleeve blouse overtop.

"Looks great!"

Hinata was silently a little jealous of the girl's confidence in wearing such revealing shorts but almost immediately, she discarded the thought from her head. She _was_ wearing shorts herself after all, for the first summer in as long as she could remember. They were far looser and longer perhaps, but it was a step in the right direction. Confidence in one's body sometimes takes work, and most of all, time.

She was pulled from her inner thoughts to a loud growling noise. Hinata looked at her friend, who was looking uncharacteristically sheepish. "So, um, I skipped breakfast this morning because I didn't want more hospital food. Wanna eat lunch before we go out?"

Hinata was fairly certain Rynn had actually slept through breakfast but she didn't bring it up. "I've got a better idea," Hinata said with a smile, feeling a little naughty as she pushed her previous moral dilemma aside. "Do you like ramen?"

* * *

Turning his neck from side to side, Kiba worked the kinks out. Cleaning the kennels could be a real pain in the neck and he meant the statement quite literally. That said, he would always take discomfort in his neck over his neck being snapped by his mother if he _didn't_ help clean out the dog pens.

Once the menial task was over, he had decided to head to Ichiraku's for lunch, if only to escape hanging around the Inuzuka clan's compound and winding up with more chores on his hands. With Akamaru beside him, the leather clad shinobi headed downtown in search of food and familiar faces.

He was part way to the ramen stand when he saw his former teammate, Hinata, several meters in front of him. Who was that with her? Kiba called out to her, and she turned around somewhat startled. He grinned at Hinata but inwardly his mood soured further as her companion turned around. It was that weird girl from the hospital.

He hadn't actually seen her since the day he had entered with the Hokage, but by the seals covering her face and limbs, it was pretty obvious. In actually, she wasn't bad looking. She was slightly taller than Hinata and marginally less well-endowed but by no mean flat-chested. Her hair was a strange mix of burgundy and red and her face…well her face looked pretty unimpressed. Her blue eyes were set into somewhat of a glare. A glare directed at him. Kiba's earlier irritation rose. "I can't believe they let you out of the hospital like that!" he snapped at her, "Maybe you should, I don't know, cover up all those life-saving seals? You're pretty easy to pick out in a crowd."

The foreigners' slight frown was replaced with a sneer. "Yeah, you're right, being covered head to toe with a mask on my face to hide the seals there would be _way less_ suspicious. Asshole." She muttered the last part under her breath, but Kiba happened to overhear. He swore he saw red but he was cut off before he could respond.

"I don't know how suspicious it is. Shino seems to get away with it all the time, ya know?"

Naruto walked up to the group, grinning widely at Hinata and waving to Rynn. '_Ugh_,' Kiba thought miserably, '_Am I the ONLY one here who remembers that this girl is a compressed bomb of weird-ass chakra? That could probably destroy Konoha again? Right after we've FINALLY rebuilt?_'

Kiba frowned deeply and stalked away without another word. He grabbed some dumplings for takeout and headed back home his mood worsening as he stewed about his day so far. He got home and slammed the door behind him. Kicking off his shoes, him and Akamaru headed up to his room. He wasn't even finished his first dumpling when his mother strode into the room without so much as a warning.

"Oi! Do you mind? This is a private room!" Kiba shouted.

His mother simply grinned, baring her teeth. "A private room in _my_ privately owned house, you mean. Anyways Kiba don't be such an ass, I was here to give you some good news. Next week you won't have to spend all morning cleaning the kennels!"

Kiba's ears perked up. Maybe this would turn the day around. "Really?"

"Yeah. Starting from next week, the Hokage has arranged for some temp girl to help out around here two days a week."

The younger Inuzuka felt his stomach drop a bit, fearing the worse. "Who?!"

His mother rolled her eyes. "Honestly Kiba, does it matter? It's a pair of hands to help you move less dog shit by yourself. To answer your question it's some foreigner stranded here who needs the work. The Hokage didn't give me all the details yet but I think her name was Rye? Lynn? Bah! It doesn't matter anyways. Quit sulking up here like a beaten pup or I'll give you a reason to!" She turned and was gone.

Kiba's shouts of "Damn it!" and several other more colourful curses could be heard echoing throughout the Inuzuka compound. His day was _definitely_ not getting better.

* * *

Hinata watched uncomfortably as Kiba stalked off. She was used to her friend's moody behavior, but she was less sure why he had such an issue with Rynn. She was sure if she could get him to get to know her a little better, he'd change his attitude. She turned to Rynn and Naruto. Naruto looked mildly baffled, and Rynn's face was set in a deep scowl. "I'll bet he regrets the day you guys brought me back here, huh? Probably wishes I never made it," she muttered darkly.

The raven haired girl shook her head. "That's not it, Rynn. Akamaru and Kiba actually carried you the last several kilometers to Konoha alone to help save you! Naruto passed out after using the Fourth's teleporting technique so many times after he had already had a strenuous battle. Sakura had to patch him up a bit before she could catch up to help treat you. I know he doesn't wish anything horrible like that."

The redhead's face turned pensive. "Oh. What's up with that reaction then?"

The Hyuga shrugged. "I'm not sure." '_But I'm going to find out,_' she silently added.

Naruto piped up with a welcome change of topic. "So, you guys wanna come with me for lunch? I'm heading for ramen!" Naruto had a lopsided grin on his face. Hinata loved it when he did that.

Grinning slightly herself, Hinata walked in the middle between Naruto and Rynn. "We were actually headed there ourselves!" Rynn said, her previously dark mood seemingly forgotten.

"Whoa! Coincidence! You're going to love it, Rynn! It's the best ramen ever, ya know!"

Naruto continued ranting about his love of Ichiraku's while Hinata inwardly felt a tiny bit smug. It was a crazy coincidence indeed.


	6. Chapter 6 - Fish Out of Water

(A/N): Sorry for anyone who was waiting, I've been working on a tricky fan-art the last couple days. Chapter 7 should be less than a week since I've already started working on it! It will have some NaruHina in it! :D Thanks everyone who has faved/followed/reviewed! :)

* * *

Chapter 6 – Fish out of Water

The Kazekage stood rigidly in his office, looking out over the village through the windows. It was an extremely sunny day outside, and temperatures had already risen to scorching levels in the surrounding areas. He was glad for once, that he was in this office, and not out in the field taking missions. Of course, Gaara felt that way purely in terms of personal comfort. He had finished his paperwork for day, and already things were turning dull.

He couldn't even ask one of his siblings to spar with him as they were both out of the village on important missions, and he doubted there were any other jounin in the village that would be enough of a challenge for him to really let loose with. As it was, he only really got to work up a sweat when both Temari and Kankuro teamed against him. Well, that or when Naruto came to visit from Konoha.

Sighing, Gaara turned away from the bright windows, blinking to readjust to the office lighting as he returned to his desk. He wished there was something for him to do; something to really do, not just the routine village maintenance. Slowly he shook his head. '_I really should not be thinking like this_,' Gaara thought, '_Peace and prosperity was the goal, and we have achieved it._'

What had Temari and Matsuri been pressuring him with a couple months back? A vacation? Perhaps he did need one. Gaara had been in office for a few years already and since then he had never seen the point in taking any time off. Maybe when Kankuro and Temari were back, he would visit Konoha rather than the other way around; he was sure that he could find some reason for the Kazekage to visit their strongest ally.

Without warning there was an influx of people rushing into his office and Gaara's idle reflections were cut off by the flurry of movement in front of him. Inwardly, Gaara was a little bit startled but outwardly, his face remained serene. "Gentlemen," he said, with a slight nod.

He noted that this group of shinobi was one that had been out on a fairly distant patrol and that they weren't scheduled to be back for several days yet. They were dirty, and covered in sweat. The team had without doubt travelled quickly despite the seasonal heat. Their leader stepped forward. "Lord Gaara, we apologized for the sudden intrusion, but we found something in the desert that we knew we needed to report to you straight away."

Gaara said nothing, but thought bitterly to himself about the old saying: be careful what you wish for.

The jounin leader continued without prompt. "We were one week's travel into the desert; maybe a day's run from the ruins of Roran, when we found something disturbing. It was…a chunk of dirt with a part of a building on it. The architecture of the building was fairly…different looking. And there was dirt and soil!"

The Kazekage's eyes narrowed. Dirt? In the middle of the desert? Very odd.

"We think it was some kind of weird summon or teleportation jutsu gone wrong. But we didn't find any people there. The only living thing was, well, this." The man held up a clear bag which held the dried out and sand-crusted remains of several Koi fish.

Gaara frowned. It was obvious this jutsu could transport living things since these fish had clearly baked to death in the desert sand. It meant there was likely a person transported as well; someone that was either a mysterious enemy, or someone who could be lost in the dunes that surrounded Suna. Either way, they needed to find the person that had come with the ruined Koi pond. "Did you find any trails that could have led off into the desert? There had to be someone there other than those unfortunate fish."

The commander shook his head. "We found nothing. There had been a wind storm a day or two prior to us arriving there. Any physical trail would have been lost then, and Matomaru didn't sense any chakra close by."

The Kazekage was quiet for a moment, collecting his thoughts and formulating a plan of action before he spoke. Standing and walking around the front of his desk, he began issuing orders. "Okay. First we will call back whatever specialized jounin that we can. I want a specialized tracking unit to leave tonight, once the heat begins to recede. Someone from your team will go with them to show them the way to this house."

He pointed to the second man in the room. "I want you to go collect what genin and chunin you can to form small search teams. I want a full sweep the surrounding areas for any more of these anomalous structures."

"Matomaru, you'll go research what you can on summoning jutsus that work on physical areas rather than beings. I want a report as soon as possible on any jutsu known to Suna that could have managed this."

In a scramble for everyone in the room left except for Gaara, and one of the newest members of the Suna shinobi. The new genin looked up at Gaara somewhat fearfully. "What…what should I do Lord Gaara?" he asked in a thin voice.

The Kazekage's smile was nearly imperceptible. "You can get rid of those," he pointed to the sac of partially preserved Koi.

As the last ninja left his office, Gaara slowly returned to his desk and sat down. There was one more thing that needed to be done, but he would need to wait a day or two until Temari returned. The Konoha archives may have insight into different summoning jutsus, and someone needed to go over there and do the research. He was sure that she wouldn't mind another diplomatic mission to Konoha, as she seemed to spend as much time as possible there since the end of the war. Gaara heavily suspected that it had to do with a certain shadow-wielding jounin, although his older sister still heartily denied that she had a relationship with the man. He was unsure why she felt the need to hide it, but surmised that she would 'let him in the on the secret' when she was ready.

He turned and peered out the blinding windows again. Once this was properly dealt with, he was going to take a vacation. Maybe.

* * *

Sakura checked the clock on the wall one last time as she closed the door to her apartment and locked it up on her way out. She was running a tad late, but since she was meeting Kakashi, she wasn't too worried. He'd almost definitely show up after her.

It felt very strange to be heading down to the training fields to meet her old master there. It was nostalgic, despite the fact that no other members of the former team seven were going to be there. As it was, Kakashi had just asked her to help him with a pupil for the morning, and Sakura had jumped at the opportunity. She rarely got to work with students or genin outside of the hospital these days, especially since she had taken on her chunin medical apprentice, Udon.

Pulling on her black leather gloves, Sakura flexed her fingers and formed a fist. She hoped she'd get to release a bit of stress today. As always, Kakashi had been somewhat vague about what training was going to entail and who was going to be involved.

She shivered slightly as she made her way over the dewy grass to their meeting point. The sky promised a warm day, but the early morning chill was still on the wind as she crested the last hill overlooking the training area. Sakura got the top and her jaw dropped. There was someone sitting on the field already, someone with silver-white hair and a perverted novel.

Her brisk pace carried her to the trio of logs quickly and she sat with her back against one to the right of her former teacher. "Kakashi! Aren't you a little early?"

The jounin looked at her over top of his novel, "perhaps."

"Becoming efficient in your old age, hm?"

"Old is a harsh word, Sakura," he replied, smiling slightly under his mask. "To be honest, I wanted to talk to you before our trainee got here. I picked you because out of all the new jounin, you've got the best chakra control."

Sakura blushed at the praise from her former sensei. "Who needs help with chakra control?

The smile faded from Kakashi's face. "Someone you're already well acquainted with."

* * *

Rynn walked through the semi-deserted town, not bothering to suppress the massive yawn that overtook her. Her eyes roved from side to side, looking for landmarks that she knew to try and find her way. She was on her way to one of the training fields and was moving fairly slowly to ensure she was still on the right route. Fearful that she would get lost on her first day, she had done a test run of the route the previous evening, following directions from a small hand-drawn map that Hinata had made up for her. The now-crumpled paper was clutched in her tight fist, her anxiety about the start of her training causing her to use more force than necessary.

The honest truth was that she had barely slept the previous night and this morning she had found herself without appetite. She had forced down a banana and a glass of milk but she knew that it wouldn't be enough to fuel anything too physical. Rynn was predicting disaster. The man that was to be her teacher did not look like a forgiving guy.

And the pleasantness of her teacher was the least of her worries. It was logical to her that in order for her to try and control the emerald energy, they would have to release it first. Rynn knew that no one was trying to hurt her, and that they wouldn't try to do stuff that was unsafe…but it didn't stop her subconscious from inventing the scenarios where her hands burnt off or worse.

Her heart raced as she left the outskirts of the city and headed across a plain grass field. She was getting close to the training grounds. Her pace slowed as she tried to work of the courage to face the day. '_Nothing is going to happen. Nothing is going to happen. Nothing is going to happen…_'

Rynn crested the final hill, her heart hammering in her chest like she had sprinted to the top. She started down the other side, peering at the two figures at the base. One was the silver haired guy from the hospital and the other was…Sakura!

She suddenly felt like the air was being squeezed out of her chest. Was Sakura there for incase she got burned again? Rynn didn't want to learn anything if it meant trial by green fire to do so. With wide eyes she approached the two ninja. "Good m-morning, Sakura."

The pink haired medic-nin smiled. "Good morning Rynn!"

Rynn looked to the older ninja. "Uh…g-good morning?" Her greeting came out more like a question and she blushed. She couldn't remember the man's name.

The man with the covered face held out his hand. "Hatake Kakashi," he said, introducing himself again. Rynn took his hand, and shook it, hoping he didn't notice that her hands were shaking.

"I'm Rynn. But I guess you probably already knew that…" She had given up on telling people her last name in the last couple days. No one in the village seemed to be able to pronounce it properly, and the few that tried, like the Hokage, garbled it horribly.

Kakashi didn't mention the lack of family name, and got straight to the point. "Today, we are going to start working on the basics of chakra control. Sakura graciously agreed to help today. I asked her to help because she has some of the best chakra control in the village."

Sakura's lips turned up slightly at the praise, and Rynn swallowed. Somehow she had thought that Sakura just worked in the hospital, although when she really thought about it, she remembered that Naruto had mentioned her being on his team when they were younger. Someone slightly younger than her was an _elite ninja_ and one of the best healers in the area. Rynn's frown deepened with that feeling of inadequacy that appears when one meets a person who is younger yet more accomplished.

Her pink-haired teacher began. "How much do you know about chakra Rynn?"

"Well, I did a bit of reading to prepare. It's the manifestation of both physical and spiritual energy, right?" Rynn almost laughed at the seriousness of her tone. If someone had told her that spiritual energy was a real thing six months ago, she probably would have scoffed and surrounded herself in comfortable skepticism. And her she was, doing pre-reading in order to harness it.

"Completely correct, but that is the case for normal, run of the mill chakra. Like mine, for example." Sakura held up a gloved fist and Rynn watched with fascination as a light blue glow surrounded the other woman's hand. "You do have this type of chakra, but I don't know that you'll ever be able to use it. It's probably dwarfed by the natural chakra reserve that we had to seal."

Kakashi nodded in agreement with the younger ninja. "Sakura is right. Chances are your normal internal chakra will always be dormant. You do, however, have a lot of Senjutsu chakra which is physical, spiritual and natural energy mixed together. The amount of already constituted Senjutsu chakra you have contained in your body, especially with the seals activated, is immense in comparison. To draw on your normal chakra would also be pointless, like drawing on a leaking faucet when you had a water main at your disposal. That brings me more to the point of today's lesson. The most basic exercises in chakra control are those of making the chakra manifest itself. Sakura made it look easy, but most struggle with it to begin with. I don't think that this is a good place to start with you though, since you have a constant excess that we had to seal. No, I think we should start by first teaching you suppression techniques."

Rynn's teacher opened his hand to reveal a fist of leaves. He picked one up and held it at eye level between them. Slowly, like Sakura's demonstration earlier, the leaf was covered in a thin blue film. Once the leaf was covered, the tip began to smoke as if it was being held too close to a flame. Unlike a smoldering leaf however, this smoking didn't progress. The tip of the leaf had burned away and then the progression had stopped, halted by an invisible force.

Holding out a leaf, Kakashi gestured for her to come closer. "For you to even try this exercise, I need to unlock the seal."

Feeling her eyes widen, Rynn shook her head wildly, sending her red locks flying. "No! You can't unlock the seal, I'll be fried!"

Kakashi's face was contorted into the odd, one-eyed smile again. "No, no I think you misunderstand. I'm only going to _weaken_ it slightly. Like a pin hole in a water drum, only a tiny bit will leak out. Give me your right hand."

Rynn's eyes darted back and forth between her two teachers. Sakura gave her a reassuring nod, and Kakashi's hand was still held out. Feeling unsteady, Rynn placed her right hand palm up in his hand. Once again, she hoped that he wouldn't notice her shaking. Her teacher mentioned nothing, only concentrating on the complex seal covering the palm of her hand. Using his other hand, he formed a sort of tripod shape with his thumb, his middle finger and his index finger. For a moment, nothing happened, and then black ink erupted from his hand and snaked its way down Kakashi's arm. Lastly, a blackish red swirl appeared on the tip of each extended finger. His visible eye never wavered from the centre of her hand.

With great precision, he moved the swirls onto Rynn's palm and twisted ever so slightly. Rynn felt a strange 'snap' in her hand and then green light began to leak out. She could feel it covering her palm and she screamed as it began to tingle. She knew what was coming next. She braced herself for the burning sensation with her eyes squeezed shut. The pain never came.

She opened a single eye to glance quickly at her hand, her vision slightly blurry with unshed tears. Her hand looked completely normal, only it was bathed in a light emerald glow that was the brightest at the centre of the seal and petered out around mid-forearm. It did still kind of tickle, but it definitely didn't hurt.

"I-I'm sorry. I'm not sure what I was expecting to happen. I know you guys weren't going to let anything happen to me."

"It's alright," Sakura said, while placing a hand on her shoulder. With her other hand, the medic-nin passed Rynn a leaf. "Here, take this and try to channel the chakra through it."

Rynn took the leaf and carefully placed it between her glowing thumb and forefinger. She was half expecting the green light to overtake and burn the leaf instantly, but nothing of the sort happened. It sat snug between her chakra-infused fingers, a perfectly ordinary leaf.

"It will take a little more focus than that, Rynn," Kakashi stated bluntly. "Really focus on the leaf and the flow of energy in your hand. Try to transfer it."

Feeling kind of stupid, Rynn did as she was told, although she was unsure of how someone focuses on the flow of energy. Instead, she peered more intently at the leaf. She noticed the little details about it, the deep yellow-green hue that lightened at the edges, and the veins of the leaf's internal water transport system as they spread out haphazardly from the centre line of the leaf. She almost felt as if she could see the water transport happening, moving nutrients about from cell to cell…

All at once, the leaf seemed to glow brightly with intense green light, and then vanished; burning up so quickly that Rynn barely saw it happen. She let out a startled squeak, and jerked her hand back from in front of her face. Ash from the leaf caught on the wind and floated away as Kakashi stepped forward, holding a small tree branch which was absolutely covered in the same type of leaves. "Good start. Next time, try to delay the combustion."

He passed her the branch and Rynn picked a leaf off of an offshoot. The sun had just risen up enough that the field was starting to warm up. It was going to be a _very _long day.

* * *

Rynn dragged her feet as she slowly headed back through Konoha towards her apartment. Rarely in her life had she been so exhausted. Sakura had warned her that manipulating chakra was tiring in a way that was hard to describe but she hadn't really thought much about it during the day. Rynn had been far too focused on achieving her goal of transferring chakra into a leaf without it burning up.

To be frank, the day had her feeling a complete failure. While she quickly got the hang of transferring chakra, she was unable to stop the leaf from burning, not even once. In fact, as her frustration with the exercise grew, the leaves seemed to burn up even more quickly than before.

"Ahh!" sharp pain shot through her hand as she tried to unlock her door. Her hand was even more tired and stiff than usual, despite Sakura healing it at the end of the day. With a frown, she used her left hand to unlock the door and shuffled inside.

The feeling of despair that set in once Rynn had entered her house was almost overwhelming. She wasn't used to this feeling of being so…out of her element. She had always been one to succeed at things she wanted to do, and usually quite quickly. Rynn was by no means a prodigy but she wasn't an idiot either. She usually caught on to things fairly quickly, which is why after a solid day of failing repeatedly at a simple exercise, she was incredibly frustrated.

This was especially annoying because Sakura and Kakashi made it look so _simple_. Inwardly, she chastised herself for letting this get to her so much. She knew that the two ninja teaching her had countless years of experience over her, and that they had started these exercises in chakra control at a very young age. Regardless, she was irritated with herself.

'_School age children can do this for god sake! Why can't I?!_'

She glanced down at her tired hand, a part of her wishing she could go right back to practicing. It was impossible of course, because Kakashi had tightened the seal on her hand again before she had left the training field but she felt the need to work on it anyways.

Sighing, she kicked off her sandals and threw on a kettle of water to make noodles and tea. She collapsed into her desk chair, not bothering to change out of her dirty training clothes. Using her left hand, Rynn picked up a scroll from the pile of notes and books on chakra control that she had collected with Hinata over the previous week. She may not be able to practice right now, but she could still study. There had to be something in this pile that could help her with the burning leaf exercise. Picking up a book entitled 'The Balance of Senjutsu,' Rynn got to work, finding comfort in the familiar action of studying.


	7. Chapter 7 - Sparks

(A/N:) Sorry about the short delay, what I had planned for this chapter got away from me and it ended up so long I had to split it into two chapters. Next chapter will be up in the next day or so! Thanks again to those who faved/followed/reviewed! It keeps me going!

* * *

Chapter 7 – Sparks

Naruto scanned the training field, watching for movement from the ground or tree-line. A ripple of movement appeared in his peripheral vision, near the creek. He turned to investigate but by the time his eyes were fixed on the location the disturbance was gone. Exhaling, Naruto focused on feeling his surroundings for chakra signatures, although he knew full well his adversary was more than adequate at minimizing her chakra signature.

Without much warning, he felt a flare of chakra from behind him. Spinning around to defend himself, he blocked an oncoming Gentle Fist attack, parrying several very rapid jabs from the Hyuga Heiress' hands. While jumping back to avoid close range attacks by the skilled taijutsu user, he tossed a sealed Kunai in Hinata's direction. She sent it off course with a small barrage of chakra needles, already seeing through his plan of using his father's Flying Thunder technique to land a winning strike. Landing some distance away from his target, his lips turned up into a small smile as he formulated a new plan.

With a quick hand signal, a dozen shadow clones surrounded Hinata.

"Byakugan!"

He watched from behind as his clones sparred with his adversary. Although his basic taijutsu skills had improved substantially, he was still not much of a match for the veteran gentle fist user and soon his clones had all been defeated by the Hyuga. She was breathing more heavily now, but barely had a scratch on her. She was quick. But not _quite_ quick enough, as he had still had time to form a double Rasengan. He sprinted across the field with a glowing chakra ball in each hand and when she saw him coming, she activated her Gentle Step Twin Lions attack. The lions seemed somewhat larger to Naruto than the last time he had seen them, and there was blue chakra flared up her back, connecting the two lions. To his surprise, she met him halfway across the distance between them, moving to smash the Lions into his own attacks.

Right as the Lions were connecting with the double Rasengan, her blue chakra faltered slightly and the concessive blast from the techniques connecting sent her flying backwards through the air. Naruto quickly made a shadow clone, and the clone tossed a marked Kunai towards Hinata. In an instant, the cloned Naruto was holding onto her. The two landed quite heavily, but the clone puffed into smoke as it absorbed most of the impact from their fall. Hinata quickly stood, brushing some grass and dirt from her person. "Thank you, Naruto! I guess I still haven't quite mastered that new technique."

Naruto grinned at his sparring partner. For the past year and a half, they had met up to train most mornings when they were both home from missions. At first, they had been prearranged, asking politely after session when they would set up the next but soon it had developed into a comfortable habit. He barely thought about it anymore, he just headed out to train with Hinata, never assuming that she would stand him up. And this hadn't been without some substantial results.

Naruto had used her help to practice and master his father's signature technique and improve his taijutsu and as for Hinata, well, she had grown a lot. He was pretty sure she was close to mastering her newest jutsu, an upgraded version of the Twin Lions. His eyes travelled to where Hinata was standing, having collected herself from her recent defeat.

Her long, dark hair was disheveled, and she was covered in dust from their previous match. Her light lavender eyes were set with fierce determination. Pride swelled in his chest, along with something else, something new. A small tingle formed in his gut when met her determined gaze. Was it just him, or did Hinata look…really cute today? He couldn't put his finger on what it was, maybe it was the tousled hair, or the rosy cheeks from exertion...Naruto was pulled from his thoughts as his friend called out to him.

"Let's go again, Naruto! I think I can maintain it this time."

"Alright Hinata, but just gimmie one sec okay?" It was mid-morning, and the training field had already begun to heat up. He jogged over to where their bags lay, needing to cool off a bit. He peeled off his already sweaty jacket, leaving him in a much more weather appropriate tank top. Tossing his jacket down on his bag, he picked up a water bottle and had a quick sip. "Water?" he questioned.

Hinata nodded and he tossed the bottle over to her. She took a long drink from the cool bottle before walking it back to him. Hinata passed the water container back to him and then to his surprise, she unzipped her dusty lavender jacket and dropped it onto the pile made up by their two bags and his own jacket before reaching into her bag and pulled out an orange to snack on.

Naruto was kind of stunned. All throughout the previous summer, no matter the heat, Hinata always kept her jacket on. Sometimes it was a lighter jacket, but she had never gone jacket-free during training. What was even more surprising is that she was wearing a sleeveless top underneath her jacket too, although it was still quite a modest shirt. It covered everything from her collarbone down and it didn't cling to her like a second skin, but it was fairly formfitting. In fact, it was probably the least baggy thing that he had ever seen his friend wear.

He swallowed hard. Had Hinata's chest always been so…chesty? Naruto had never really thought about the fact that Hinata always wore baggy clothing, although he knew that she lacked confidence in her appearance. This was the first time that he really questioned _why_ she lacked confidence in her appearance, because her body looked okay to him. In fact it looked a lot better than _just_ okay. She had a perfect hourglass figure, and her exposed arms showed the true extent of her fitness. Why had she been hiding _that_?

"I'm ready to begin another match Naruto! Are you ready too? Or do you want a snack?" His friend held up another orange.

"Nah, I'm good! Totally fine! We should start!"

Naruto's face went red with embarrassment and he hoped that Hinata didn't catch him staring at her. He was appalled with himself. Hinata was such a sweet girl, one of his closest friends and he had been eyeing her up like some sort of disgusting pervert.

They headed away from their stuff and into the field. Hinata took her gentle fist stance and he stood at the ready, despite still being somewhat distracted by Hinata's change of clothes. Hinata started by quickly doing a trio of hand seals. "Water Release: Tearing Torrent!" She flew at him, and directed the water-based attack into his chest. Naruto's attention was still not focused, and despite him dodging at the last second, the attack connected with his shoulder and he flew backwards, skipping over the grass. He landed in a heap, but quickly summoned some shadow clones when he saw that his sparring partner was already pursuing him.

Three of his clones moved forward to intercept Hinata, and the others stayed back to form Rasengan. Naruto hopped a couple feet backwards, landing on the crystal surface of the creek. Watching her movements from afar and between the clones was difficult but it looked like she was weaving hand signs while fighting off the clones. What was she up to?

Hinata jumped backwards suddenly, moving away from the clones and then finishing up her hand seals. His clones were in hot pursuit, but it was too late.

"Ahh!" Naruto cried out as he felt cold hands grip his legs and pull his legs into the creek up to mid-shin. His arms wind milled as he tried to free his legs but to his horror, they were trapped beneath the surface of the liquid. Naruto still hadn't thought of a clear escape route when a cool hand tapped him on the back of the neck.

"Dispel your clones Naruto! This match is mine!"

The shadow clones puffed into smoke, and a heavy splash signaled the end of Hinata's water clone. Naruto felt the jutsu holding his legs give way but before he could react, he plunged fully clothed into the cold water of the creek. He inwardly groaned at his own stupidity. He had forgotten to avoid sources of water where Hinata had an elemental advantage. It was a rookie mistake really. Naruto climbed back atop the water's surface and walked over to where the real Hinata was sitting on the grass, giggling quietly. "Are you alright Naruto? I didn't mean to drop you into the water like that, but it did look pretty funny!"

He felt himself grinning in her direction, feeling the odd tingle from before a second time when he made contact with her mirthful gaze. Naruto's grin turned devious. It was payback time. Pulling his soaking wet shirt off over his head he jogged over to her. "No one pranks the number one prankster of Konoha!" he cried. Crushing his shirt into a ball over her head, he laughed as icy creek water was forced out of the garment and onto her head.

She squealed as the cold drops hit her. A blush covered her face as she rolled out of the way of the water drops. Hinata looked up at him, a smile gracing her lips. "That may be true Naruto, but no one wins a water fight with a water-nature kunoichi!"

A massive wave of water from the creek behind the duo swept over him, once again soaking him with cold water and knocking him over. He lost his footing and fell onto the slippery grass in a wet heap. Naruto wound up on his back as his right arm knocked into something warm: Hinata's hand.

He grabbed her hand, only thinking afterwards about whether it was appropriate or not once he had acted on the initial impulse. Feeling heat rise in his face he looked up at her beside him. Hinata's face was in a small 'o' of surprise. It was cute but he instantly regretted his rash action.

'_Ahh, you idiot_,' he thought to himself, letting go of her hand, '_you are totally being a perv right now_! _She's going to think you're weird!_'

He looked the other way, formulating a different sort of plan. "So, Hinata, I was thinking, if you want…You wanna grab some lunch after all this training? I'm pretty hungry!"

"I-I'm s-sorry Naruto, I c-can't today. I-I promised to m-meet up with Kiba for l-lunch. I'm probably late a-actually."

His eyes widened as he heard her now-rare stuttering. She only did it now when she was really nervous or shocked. Naruto couldn't believe himself. He had probably made her think he was a grab-happy weirdo or something. Whatever it was, was it enough to make her lie about having lunch plans? He sat up in the damp grass.

"That's okay Hinata. Are…are we still on for training tomorrow?"

"O-of course! I'll s-see you tomorrow, Naruto!"

His heart skipped a beat. Maybe he didn't just make a complete ass of himself; maybe she actually did have prearranged plans with her former teammate.

Naruto watched her grab her things and hurry across the field back to Konoha, her inky locks dancing behind her. What a weird day this had been. Though they had spent so much time together in the past year, today's events had seemed to shift his view of the heiress somehow. Or was this the discovery of something that had been there already, that simply he hadn't noticed?

He shook his head, sending drops of water out of his wayward hair and down his back. Naruto looked in the direction of the town. Since when was he ever jealous of Kiba?

* * *

Hinata hurried across the field with heat rising off of her face, as if she had sustained a sunburn. What had just happened? A typical morning of training had given way to something else entirely, something that seemed to her a whole lot like flirting. She immediately dismissed the idea. It had been quite a while since she had seriously held out hope that Naruto was ever going to return her feelings and Hinata had resigned herself to being his friend and only his friend.

If she was honest with herself, she knew this was part of the reason she had been able to stop stuttering around him and act more like herself then a shy stalker. Once she had accepted that they would only be friends, it was easier to relax around him. The stress was gone. Initially it had been painful, but now it felt more like a comfortable compromise. A comfortable comprise that had just been turned abruptly onto its head.

As she crossed into town, her thoughts drifted back to what had happened earlier. His larger, warm hand enveloping hers made her think back to the last time that had happened, in the war. This seemed entirely different from then. When he had held her hand in the war there had been a certain desperation to it; they were forging necessary bonds to push back the threat of death and destruction. When he had held her hand today, it had been spontaneous, yet tentative and at the shock that must have shown on her face, he had blushed.

Hope was rising in Hinata's chest even though she was doing her best to squash it. She didn't want to get her hopes up just yet. It seemed far too premature.

"Oi! Way to keep me waiting, Hinata!"

Hinata noticed Kiba leaning up against the side of the café with Akamaru sitting at his side. The Hyuga jogged up to the front of the restaurant that she promised to meet Kiba at. As she had suspected, she was late. "Sorry, Kiba! Training ran a little late today." She cursed her fair skin as a slight blush touched her cheeks again. She could never keep her emotions from her teammates.

"So what happened at training?" Kiba noted her pink cheeks and grinned wickedly. "Was Naruto finally less than a perfect gentleman?"

"K-Kiba! No, we just…he just…we held hands for a second is all."

Kiba's eyebrows hitched up slightly, and then he whistled. "Wow, that's taking it slow, _extremely _slow."

Hinata felt stupid at the admission that such a small thing had caused her obvious infatuation. A leather-clad arm wrapped around her shoulder. "It's alright Hinata," Kiba said with wry smile, "enjoy your moment. Maybe that idiot is finally figuring things out, huh? Now, let's get some lunch, okay?"

She nodded and the two headed into the restaurant, trailed by Akamaru. They picked a small table and sat across from one another. As they sat down, Kiba's expression turned more solemn. "Look Hinata, I've been meaning to tell you something. I'm sorry about the other day in the market; I was just in a shitty mood. I shouldn't have been so rude."

"I accept your apology, Kiba. It's behind us, okay?"

Hinata had already forgiven her former teammate's transgression before they had even set up this lunch. She was used to his moods. It didn't mean she didn't want to get more information on why he was so staunchly against her foreign friend though. The pair ordered meals as she pondered how to approach the topic without being too obvious or awkward.

"Kiba…there must have been a reason why you got so angry the other day. Might I ask…why do you hate her so much?"

"Hate's a strong word to use."

"Then what is the more appropriate word?" she questioned.

Kiba's narrow pupils were downcast. "Wary," he answered quietly. "She's a potential threat to the village, Hinata. I don't like the idea of rebuilding again. Things have just started to get back to normal around here after…" He didn't finish, but Hinata knew he was talking about the war. "I just don't like the idea of everyone getting so cozy with an outsider. It could go sideways in a split second, yeah?"

"She's trying really hard you know, to restrain her chakra and stuff. She's just started training with Master Kakashi even though I know for a fact that she's not really interested in becoming a ninja. Rynn is only doing it so that she can't be used against the village. I know you're wary Kiba, but please don't fall into the trap of disliking people based on where they're from. That's how our world got so filled with hate in the first place."

The Inuzuka sighed. "What do you want me to do, Hinata?"

"Just promise me that you will give her a chance, and make your judgments based on her as a person, instead of where she came from."

Kiba scratched his short brown spikes. "I'll try Hinata, but only because you're my friend and I sorta owe you for freaking out on your friend."

"That's good enough for me," The heiress said with a warm smile. "Now, let's catch up! I haven't been able to really talk to you or Akamaru in ages!" The white dog let out a few excited barks, and Hinata reached under the table to scratch his head. "How was that last mission of yours? I heard you two went to Suna?"

Her friend's face lit up, and he began speaking animatedly about his last trip out of the village. She settled in to listen to his story, feeling content that there was no ill will between them.

* * *

Kiba left the restaurant feeling fairly pleased that Hinata wasn't angry with him. If he was honest, he didn't really expect her to keep a grudge but nevertheless it was nice knowing that his brash actions in the past days hadn't affected their friendship.

He thought back to Hinata's words about hatred and felt a small twinge of regret. Leave it to the most empathetic kunoichi in Konoha to halt nasty assumptions in their tracks. Kiba grinned a little. Naruto and Hinata had that in common actually. As Hinata had grown more confident, she'd certainly gotten more vocal about her views on peace and stopping the circle of hatred.

He was going to have to work with the foreigner tomorrow for the first time and his mother had told him yesterday that she expected him to handle the designation of duties for their part-time helper. Remembering his promise to Hinata he sighed.

"I promised Hinata that I'd be fair and give this chick a chance Akamaru. You be nice too, okay?"

The large white dog gave a few barks in response.

"No, I didn't say you had to like her. Just don't bite her or anything, yah? Even if she smells weird."


	8. Chapter 8 - Motivations

Chapter 8 – Motivations

The next morning, Kiba stood rigidly at the gate. He wasn't exactly expecting this Rynn girl to be very pleased to find out she was going to be working with him given the somewhat volatile nature of their last meeting.

He noticed her come around the corner of the block. Her red hair was tied off to the side and she was wearing a black headband over most of it, which kept the hair off her face even though she was looking down. She was clearly trying to read directions off a piece of paper, and after she looked up to read the street signs. Finially, she noticed him standing at the edge of the compound and a part of him relished the way her face turned from hope to irritation when she caught sight of him.

She walked up to him slowly with a carefully crafted, disinterested expression on her ink-covered face.

"Don't tell me. This is the Inuzuka compound, right?"

He nodded, as a slightly evil grin appeared on his face.

"And let me guess, your last name is Inuzuka," she added dryly.

His grin widened, showing sharp teeth. "Yup. Come on newbie, there's a whole world of dirty kennels to get you acquainted with."

"Sounds _amazing_."

Kiba started by giving Rynn a brief tour of the compound, and pointed out the living quarters, the training grounds and the main ninkin play & sleeping areas. The last stop on the tour was the disciplinary kennels and it was the first spot slated to be cleaned.

"Okay. This is the first place we gotta clean today, the D Kennels."

The outsider made a face. "It reeks in here!"

"Yeah, well ninkin don't like being disciplined. And don't whine about the smell! At least you only got a human sense of smell; it's way worse for me."

He turned to face his charge and noted that she had an odd, thoughtful expression on her face. "You have a dog nose?"

"Ah, it's more like a ninjutsu. I move my chakra to my nose to enhance my sense of smell. But I've done it so much that it's permanently more sensitive than a human nose. Kind of a pain in the ass in situations like these actually."

"I didn't know chakra could do that. Cool, I guess…" the redhead trailed off, looking down. "Look, I'm sorry I called you an asshole the other day. I shouldn't be judging you on stuff you said months ago."

"Yeah, don't worry about it. I was out of line myself."

The two stood awkwardly for a moment, before Kiba interrupted it by passing Rynn a plastic baggy. "Let's get going so we aren't here all day. First step is…well I'm sure you figured it out."

For the next several minutes the two working in silence, clearing the kennels of dog dirt. The silence was an uncomfortable one. Kiba was usually someone who liked to keep chatter going when other people were around but he was unsure what to say to a girl who was so completely unknown to him. He racked his brain, thinking of common ground. Wait...hadn't Hinata mentioned that Rynn was training with Kakashi?

"So…how is training with Kakashi? I've heard he's a hard guy to train under."

Kiba instantly knew that this wasn't the great idea he had thought it was when he saw the foreigners' face harden. "Fine, I guess."

"Uh, good."

The Inuzuka scratched his neck. '_Well, that went well_,' he thought sarcastically as they resumed their previous silence. Another half an hour passed in mostly silence, save for a few questions about cleaning products.

"Can… I ask you a question?" Rynn asked with a tentative note to her voice.

Kiba glanced at his part-time subordinate. "Yeah, I guess?"

The redhead looked pensive; her eyebrows were drawn together so tightly that the seals on her forehead were nearly touching. "Why did you become a ninja?"

"W-what?" The question caught him off guard, especially given the odd and somewhat candid nature of the question.

"I-I'm sorry, that was maybe a bit inappropriate. I'm just…curious. Curious _why _people do it."

Kiba peered at her, frowning. He didn't really like the negative undertones to the question. "It wasn't really a question for me. It's what my family does. Most of my clan actually, and those who aren't ninja have support jobs with our ninkin."

"That wasn't really an answer. Why do_ you_ do it?"

"I don't know. I guess I just wanted to be strong enough to protect the people I care about, and my village."

"Oh."

"Oh? That's sorta a personal question to a near stranger for an 'oh' " Kiba said irritably.

"Sorry," Rynn said, not sounding sorry enough for his taste.

"What's it to you anyway?" Kiba's annoyance was growing by the minute. "Why would someone like you, who doesn't want to have this life at all, give a damn about why other people do it?"

"I'm just trying to figure some stuff out, okay?" The redhead's voice rose up an octave, mirroring his.

"Yeah well, try not offending the masses while you do your soul searching, yah?"

The civilian girl scowled at him. "I take it back. You _are_ an asshole!"

Kiba bristled. "_You're_ the asshole! You started this whole mess!"

"Yeah well, I didn't start shouting, did I!?"

"Yeah, you kinda did!" he retorted, furious at the accusation.

"Only after you started doing it, it was self defense!"

"What the hel…"

"ARF! ARF! ARRF!" Akamaru barreled into the D kennels and jumped between the two, the fur on his back bristling. He growled and barked several more times, telling Kiba that he and his equally loud friend had interrupted him doing basic training with the pups.

Kiba turned to his ninkin companion. "I'm sorry Akamaru, I didn't mean to disrupt stuff in C Kennel."

"Arrrr Arf!"

"I'll make it up to you alright? I promise! I'm sorry!"

The white dog barked once more, but licked Kiba's hand and accepted a scratch behind the ears before trotting off out the door.

Kiba turned back to the girl before him, but the heat of the moment was gone and her mouth was hanging open.

"Y-you…you just t-talked to that dog." The foreign girl looked a little pale. Kiba beamed.

"Yup." He placed his hands behind his head and grinned.

The girl looked like she was going to be sick on the newly cleaned floors. "I'm so _sick_ of all this _weirdness_!"

Kiba's smug feeling fled when the girl's pale face was streaked by a tear, and then two, and then several more. He sighed as the girl used her sleeve to wipe tears off her face. "Uh, I'm sorry. Don't cry. Really, it's okay. I won't yell again?"

"I'm not crying!"

"Umm…sure."

Kiba rubbed his face with his hands. This day was quickly going from bad to worse. "Look, can we just pretend this didn't happen and clean the kennels? I wanna get out of here asap."

Rynn glowered at him. "Fine, I've got stuff to do anyways."

"If we finish here, and clean A kennel quickly we can be done by eleven."

* * *

The pair worked diligently, and very quietly, for the rest of the morning and soon Rynn had left the compound, having fulfilled her required hours for the day. Kiba had done a small amount of training with the pups as a favor to Akamaru and then after a quick lunch, the ninja and his ninkin decided to sneak in some extra training.

Kiba headed off towards the training fields with Akamaru and soon the redheaded outsider made her way into his thoughts. He was beginning to feel guilty at his treatment of her earlier in the morning. It couldn't be easy, being suddenly thrust into a strange new world. He definitely could have handled things with more finesse, but he always seemed to bugger up when girls started crying in front of him. His mother and sister rarely cried at all, so when he did see it, he tended to panic.

Annoyed at himself, he decided that he should probably apologize. He had sort of been an ass, and aside from that, Hinata was going to pissed at him that he upset her friend. Well, as pissed as the sweet-natured girl could get.

"New plan Akamaru, it's time for a little reconnaissance, so I can patch things up before Hinata hears about my screw-up! You remember that girl's scent right?"

Akamaru nodded, and took off to the left of Kiba. The brunette followed his companion and soon the trail led them to a wooded area that was part of one the training areas. Both man and beast sunk into the surrounding forest and slowly inched their way up to a clearing. In the middle was Rynn, and the surrounding forest floor was littered with shuriken.

"Damn it, damn it, DAMN IT!"

The redhead collected one of the weapons from the ground and threw it, somewhat haphazardly, ahead of her. It didn't look like it to Kiba, but she must have been aiming for something, because she spewed another string of curses when the shuriken arced miserably and landed without ceremony into a heap of leaves. After three more failed attempts at hitting her target (whatever that was, he sure as hell couldn't figure out where she meant for them to go), she sunk to the ground and sat with her legs splayed on the forest floor. "I'm never going to get this right. Why am I so terrible at this?" She put her face into her hands.

Kiba realized that he was now actually spying on her, which wasn't really his original intention. Jumping up, he dusted the twigs off his leather jacket and stepped into the clearing. "Uh, hey, can I talk to you for a sec?"

Startled, Rynn jumped up, her red ponytail whipping back and forth while she looked around. Her eyes narrowed slightly when she saw who was approaching. "It's you. What are you doing here? How did you find me?"

The shinobi raised his eyebrows slightly. "I'm a ninja, remember? Tracking people is kind of what I do."

Groaning the girl shook her head. "Right, I somehow forgot that. What do you want?"

"I just wanted to apologize for earlier. I was kind of an ass when you were…not crying."

"I'm sorry too I guess. I shouldn't have been digging around asking weird questions."

She didn't mention her little outburst, and he decided to let it slide. They stood in silence once again, and Kiba ran a hand through his hair. "What are you doing out here anyways? Training alone isn't usually very effective. Who taught you to throw shuriken?"

The redhead looked sheepish. "No one really, I only read how to do it in a book. I was…I was sort of trying to get ahead."

"Why? No offense or anything here but I thought you only needed to learn how to control chakra?"

"Kakashi thinks I should be trained in everything for incase an enemy comes for me. I…I didn't really want to but then…"

He thought about her questions earlier and the way her face and hardened when he had mentioned her training. It wasn't too hard to put two and two together. "Alright then," he mused, "why do you want to be a ninja?"

Rynn got a faraway took to her eyes and glanced to the side. "You know, everyone I asked that gave me really selfless answers. Protecting people, protecting the village, family honour, the list goes on and on. I wish…I wish just one person had said they just wanted to get stronger or liked the thrill of it or something. Honestly, I just…I'm scared of someone coming for me. And I think it will help me get home. Pretty awful right?"

Kiba sighed. Maybe coming out here hadn't been the brightest idea. This sort of thing was best left to Naruto, Hinata, Rock Lee and other people who oozed positivity wherever they went.

"It does sound kind of bad, yeah," he laughed before continuing, "but everyone had a selfish reason to keep going at one point or another. I think…I think that's pretty understandable. Just remember one thing; it was the most important thing I learned from the last Great War. True strength comes from a desire to protect. Just keep that in the back of your head and you'll be fine."

The redhead looked serious as she returned his gaze. "Okay…I'll do that." Her brow furrowed, and she reached into the leaves to grab another shuriken.

"You're doing that all wrong, by the way," he stated. Rynn frowned at his bluntness, but said nothing.

"Here, watch me." Kiba reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a couple shuriken. He threw them in a wide arc and grinned as each one of the three made a dull 'thunk' into the trees in front of the pair.

Eyes wide, Rynn watched the feat, her expression turning from one of annoyance to one of awe."W-wow! You're really good at that!"

"Uh, yeah it's something most academy students can do really, although I _do _make it look pretty easy." He allowed himself a self-congratulatory smile. "Anyway watch closely, I'll do it again with just one. Watch my arm. It's really all in the wrist."

Bending over, he grabbed one of the stray shuriken off the ground and threw it slowly, exaggerating the arm movements a little bit. There was another dull thunk as the star made its mark slightly below the last shuriken. "Give it another shot."

Looking fiercely serious, the foreigner picked up another throwing star and tried to copy her leather-clad instructor. She threw it and this time the shuriken hit the rightmost tree in front of them.

"Nice!" he said

"Well…I was kind of aiming for the middle tree."

"Eh, still improvement. Anyway, I gotta run. Me and Akamaru have some training to do." The Inuzuka turned and started to walk out of the clearing towards the area where Akamaru lay. He stopped at the edge, and glanced back once to the girl still standing in the middle with a handful of shuriken. "Hey Rynn? One last thing…"

"Yeah?"

"Don't be too hard on yourself. See ya on Thursday, newbie." Waving a hand over his shoulder, he headed out into the forest, leaving the redhead to her basic training.

Kiba and his ninkin walked towards the training grounds that he and Akamaru and originally been heading towards when he had decided to go find the foreigner. It had been quite a long time since he had been asked why he wanted to be a ninja. A slight smile crossed his lips. Maybe he hadn't been completely honest with Rynn when she had asked. It wasn't a lie, protecting his family and village was really important to him. But more recently, he'd been training to try and catch up to someone. Working towards a dream…does that count as commendable or selfish?

'_We all got selfish reasons sometimes,_' he thought once again, as he walked through the thinning trees.

* * *

(A/N:) Thanks for reading! Next chapter will be more focused on the nefarious plans and have a little more action! Might be a longer wait for it though, since Christmas and family visits are fast approaching. Hope everyone has a lovely holiday season!


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